


Far From the Tree

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2018-12-22 21:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11975382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: In which Mal and Evie are dating and everyone knows it except Mal and Evie





	1. Chapter 1

Everyone had noticed. Jay and Carlos, first and foremost, because how in the world could they not? Ben, Doug, Jane, Chad—of all people—Fairy Godmother, hell, even Dude. Literally everyone had noticed.

Except for them.

It had seemed to come so naturally to them. In some ways that was to be expected of Evie, but not so much of Mal, Mal who tended to stay comfortably closed off with a scowl waiting if anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way.

When royal coronations and evil parental schemes had come and gone, normal day-to-day school life had a chance to settle in on the VKs like a cloud—a cloud less soft and pillowy and more made up of textbooks, worksheets, and miles of snapped pencil lead. School on The Isle, where assignments were given but never expected to be finished because “Mwa-ha-ha, villainy”, had done little to prepare the gang for one of the true evils of the world: homework. And sure, sliding into attendance just weeks before the former Prince Ben’s ascension to king meant the kids caught the tail end of the trickling down of work; a couple quizzes here, a test there, but nothing too intense as Auradon Prep strove for clear schedules and clear minds come Coronation Day. But the ceremony had passed, school had unpaused, and classes got back into full swing.

Boy, full swing came with a lot of paperwork.

It was the unspoken agreement between the four of them that Mal and Evie’s dorm was to serve as the official study space, and throughout the late afternoon, in between Tourney practice for the boys and various afterschool goings-on for Evie, that dorm was where they’d find themselves staggering into one by one with backpacks slung over shoulders and binders in hand.

This particular study session found Jay and Carlos stuck with research papers on the fauna of Bald Mountain, 30% working and 70% fighting over the use of the laptop. Mal, who had at least made an attempt at pages 311 to 332 of her History of Pirates textbook, quickly ditched the effort in favor of poring over her spellbook, a far more interesting read. Evie was nowhere to be found until nearly an hour after the other three had gathered, sauntering into her room with fashionable lateness (as if Evie was capable of any other kind of lateness).

And that was when it first caught Carlos and Jay’s notice.

With a tired “whew”, Evie crossed the room, let her purse drop to the carpet, and in turn dropped with it; right beside Mal, who was parked on the floor at the foot of her bed. Evie didn’t say a word, the obvious effects of being drained from a long day were clear in her expression. So without a word, she closed her eyes and leaned over until her head rested snugly and comfortably on Mal’s shoulder. Mal didn’t say a word either, didn’t react in any way, didn’t even blink. Just took the entire act in stride.

Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

It was just enough to elicit a raised eyebrow from Jay and a couple fast blinks from Carlos like he was attempting to clear stars from his eyes, but that was it. The two merely shrugged it off and resumed their brawl for the laptop.

It happened again later that week, only it wasn’t as easy to overlook the second time around. Almost an identical situation, with Mal on the floor, temporarily disregarding her actual work in favor of her spellbook, and Evie being the last to join them. Again briefly silenced by tiredness, she simply settled into place beside Mal and laid her head back on her shoulder, allowing herself a small reprieve from the hectic day. It wouldn’t have even caught the boys’ attention this time if Mal, daughter of Maleficent, She Who Had a Scowl Waiting if Anyone So Much as Looked at Her the Wrong Way—hadn’t tilted her own head to the side to rest it on Evie’s as she read over spells, letting out what sounded suspiciously like a contented sigh as she did so.

Carlos’ jaw dropped so quickly and stayed that way so long that Dude ambled over and craned his fuzzy head up to have a look inside. That was Mal, daughter of Maleficent, She Who Had a Scowl Waiting if Anyone So Much as Looked at Her the Wrong Way, curled up cozily with her best friend and seeming more serene and at peace than she’d ever been in her whole life. It was a strange color on her…but a nice one. Carlos’ bewildered expression soon melted into a little smile, and Jay looked away from the girls in time to stifle a knowing laugh.

“M, how about you let me borrow your history notes tonight?” Evie spoke up after a little while, after sufficiently unwinding from the schoolday.

Mal turned a page, and smirked.

“You sketched all over yours,” it wasn’t a question, she didn’t need an answer.

“…Maybe,” Evie answered anyway.

“How do you know I didn’t do the same to mine?”

“I don’t, I’m mostly just hoping you’ll be my knight in shining armor.”

Mal paused, wickedly drawing out her response just for the satisfaction of making Evie squirm.

“You’re in luck,” she finally said.

Evie squealed delightedly, with a big smile.

“Thank you!” she was giddy with relief. “I knew you’d be my knight in shining armor.”

Mal just chuckled, turning another page.

“I’m far from that, E.”

That week came with its share of late nights, so many that Saturday found Mal and Evie oversleeping and Jane coming to the dorm to check on them before they missed breakfast entirely. The urgent and very Jane-like knocking roused Evie awake right away, and she blinked her eyes open. Sunlight was fighting its way through the drawn curtains, lighting up the room with a soft glow. Taking her time, because that was a thing she could afford to do on weekends in Auradon, Evie pushed the covers aside and got up to answer the door. And there was Jane, in all her bright-eyed innocence, mustering up a smile as a greeting.

“Hey, Evie, good morning. Aren’t you guys coming down to breakfast?” she queried.

“…Breakfast?” It took a second or two for Evie’s sleepy brain to remember what that word meant, but eventually it caught up to her. “…Oh, yeah. I’ll wake Mal.”

No way in hell or high water would the VKs ever miss an Auradon meal. Evie’s padding across the dorm room was silenced by her slippers, and she was at Mal’s bedside in no time, leaning over her.

“Mal? Hey, M, wake up. It’s time for breakfast.”

She’d taken conscious extra care to make sure the hand shaking her best friend’s shoulder was especially gentle at this hour of the morning, but it wasn’t enough, for Mal jolted upright with a gasp, eyes flaring green for a split second, just long enough to stand out starkly in the dim light of the room. Evie pulled her hand back and flinched away.

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” she repositioned herself slightly so Mal could see her better. “Look, it’s only me. It’s just me, Mal.”

“…Oh. Evie,” Mal breathed, getting her bearings and remembering where she was.

“I’m sorry,” Evie apologized again. When she saw that Mal was settling down, she let her hand come to rest on her shoulder once more. “We overslept. It’s time to get down to the dining hall before we miss breakfast.”

“Strawberry pancakes,” Jane piped up helpfully.

“Strawberry pancakes,” Evie repeated with a smile at Mal.

Looking at her, she saw that Mal’s hair was less hair and more a tangled mop of purple nestled on top of her head. And of course, Evie couldn’t stand for that. Her hand slid from Mal’s shoulder and up into her hair, fingers combing section by section through strands of violet to untangle it. It was subtle, and if Jane’s eyes had been anywhere else she would’ve missed it, missed the way Mal leaned into Evie’s touch with a slow blink, grumbling sleepy grumbles low in her throat.

“…Okay, so, breakfast, see you guys there!” Jane said with that nervous yet beaming smile of hers, feeling like she was intruding on her new friends.

She hurried away, job done, closing the door behind her.

There was no rush for conversation or action after Jane left, Evie just continued to work her magic on Mal’s hair and Mal continued to sit there in silence and let her do so.

“…You forgot where you were, didn’t you?” Evie eventually prodded.

“Don’t,” Mal warned.

Evie didn’t heed.

“Your mother isn’t here, Mal.”

“No, she’s just down the hall, stuffed into a terrarium in the boys’ room,” Mal dryly retorted.

“See? Not here.”

“But close enough, should she ever decide to dragon-bust right out of her cage and set the school on fire.”

“She can’t do that, and you know it. So just forget about Maleficent for now—”

“Easier said than done,” Mal huffed.

“I know, but just for a little bit. Just long enough to get dressed and go down to the dining hall before Jay and Carlos eat all the pancakes. Will you do that for me?”

“…Fine,” Mal conceded, shaking her head like the act could physically clear her mother from her mind.

“Wait wait, one second,” Evie gave one final drag through Mal’s hair and then smoothed down the slight frizz with her palm. “Okay, there.”

“Not hideous?” Mal asked of her appearance, tilting her head up to glance at Evie.

“Never ever.”

“Yeah, well, you’re my best friend. You’re obligated to say that,” Mal flipped the covers off of her and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

Evie went to the windows, drawing the curtains and letting the sun in.

“Mm-mm, as the best friend I’m obligated to speak the truth,” Evie closed her eyes and basked; Auradon sunlight seemed to shine a little warmer and a little brighter than any sunlight they ever saw on The Isle. “What should we do today, Mal?”

Mal opened a dresser drawer on her side of the room, fishing through all the leather to find just the right set of leather.

“You mean besides drown under homework? Probably drown under homework. This is insane, I didn’t realize academia was this, well, academic. If I did I probably would’ve thought twice before announcing in front of the whole school that going to class makes me happy.”

Evie moved to her own dresser.

“It isn’t as bad as all that,” she disagreed.

“If you’re a genius. Average me doesn’t have the patience for it.”

“You could always ask for help when you need it.”

“I…” that one word, one syllable was firm. But the rest that followed wasn’t quite as such. “…I’m still learning how.”

Evie turned around to see that Mal had paused in her outfit planning, eyes drifting off unfocused with a shirt bunched in her fist.

“…That’s okay, M,” Evie softly said. “You might not think so, but it is. You’re trying to get used to it, I’m trying to get used to it, hell, just the other day we had to send Jay back to the library with the four copies of ‘The Layman’s Guide to Dwarf Treasure’ he’d stuffed inside his vest. We’re all still learning.”

“To this day I still can’t figure out how he manages to hide all that stuff in his vest,” Mal said distractedly.

“M.”

“Yeah, I know, I heard you.”

Mal moved in front of the dorm’s floor-length mirror with the shirt she held, holding it up to herself and looking, debating. Suddenly, Evie was there behind her reflection, looking into the mirror world as well.

“It’s a work in progress. Give it time,” Evie wisely said, watching the both of them. “We all agreed Auradon was our chance to be happy. It won’t happen right away, but we’ll get there. Together, as always.”

“…You really are a genius, aren’t you?” Mal laughed quietly to herself.

“Not yet, but give that time too.”

Jay and Carlos were easy to spot in the dining hall, what with syrup plastered all over their faces. The girls sat down with them at the long table, Mal’s tray of pancakes stacked just a little bit higher than Evie’s.

“What, did you eat us out of house and home?” Mal chided, noting the actually scary amount of syrup stuck in a ring around Jay’s mouth.

“You snooze you lose,” he said simply, paying her morning snark no mind.

“And there’s Tourney practice today,” Carlos added, realizing his messiness and wiping his face.

“Ah, so Jay can pretend to have an actual excuse for eating like a horse,” Mal rolled her eyes.

Jay grinned around a mouth full of fresh fruit, and Evie grimaced while she cut into her pancakes.

“Speaking of which, did you guys remember to feed my mom?”

“Yeah, but she still hasn’t stopped trying to bite us everytime we open the terrarium,” Carlos muttered.

Evie giggled when she cut off a slice of her breakfast and found a particularly big piece of strawberry hiding inside.

“Look,” she turned her fork out to Mal to show her.

Mal’s soft green eyes went wide.

“Mine?” she asked, very reminiscent of Dude with a treat.

“Yours.”

Mal opened her mouth and Evie just had to oblige her, feeding her the bite of pancake and giggling again as Mal all but ascended to Cloud Nine at the taste of it. Fruit finished, Jay had the room and maneuverability to flash an impish grin.

“So what are you two gonna do today?” he wondered.

“Don’t know yet,” Evie quickly said before Mal could start in on her anti-homework riff again.

“Will you take Dude out for his walk later? Since I’ll be at practice?” Carlos asked.

“Sure,” Mal agreed to anything when distracted by strawberries, not-so-sneakily sneaking another bite from Evie’s plate even when she had her own sitting right in front of her.

Jay elbowed Carlos, and when the boy met his eyes he flicked them over to Mal and Evie, winking mischievously. Carlos turned his head and brought a hand to his mouth to hide a snicker.

The girls pretended not to notice the two of them being weirdos.

It was Ben who found them next, out on their walk with Dude. Evie had the dog by his leash, doing the actual walking, while Mal was so very busy with what Evie could only assume was “supervising”. They’d rounded the school building to cross through the front courtyard, and Ben, with his nose in a binder full of papers, nearly crashed right into them.

“Whoa, hi Ben,” Evie greeted him, swerving herself and Dude out of the way just in time to avoid a collision.

Ben looked up with his eyes slightly glazed over, then shook himself out of it.

“Evie! Mal! Hi!” he said a bit too exuberantly, even for him.

Mal cast her eyes on the binder in his hands.

“Homework?” she guessed.

“Ah, no. I wish,” Ben laughed. “King stuff. Lots of edicts to revise and obscure decrees to commit to memory.  _On top_  of homework, I might add.”

“Bummer,” Mal said with a scrunchy-nosed frown.

“What about you guys?” Ben’s eyes were no longer dazed, now shining with genuine interest. “School’s really picked back up now that the coronation is over, classes going well?”

“Very,” Evie said with a nod.

“Peachy,” Mal added, grimly distracted by the fact that classes were going just a little  _too_  well.

Evie cleared her throat, cleared the aloofness from the air, and put her free arm around Mal’s shoulder.

“Don’t mind her, she just had a few late-night study sessions this week. Sometimes a sleep deprived Mal gives Grumpy a run for his money, you know?”

“Yeah…well, good for you, Mal. It’s good you’re studying hard,” Ben’s grin was sweet and genuine.

Mal’s was a little stiff, and very much a mood killer.

“I’ve gotta get to my office,” Ben shrugged apologetically and then crouched down to give Dude a quick scratch. “I’ll see you guys later, okay?”

“Yeah, of course. Bye Ben,” Evie waved, then let her arm slide down around Mal’s waist to lead her away.

Ben really did have to go, burying his attention back in his royal paperwork and striding for the school’s front doors. Evie peeked over her shoulder to make sure he’d gotten out of earshot before she turned her attention back to Mal.

“M, can’t you try a little harder to have a civil conversation with that poor boy?” she chided.

Mal’s expression was legitimately surprised.

“That was civil!” she argued in her defense.

“You and I must have a different definition.”

Mal sighed.

“Look, he…I…it’s just weird. It’s been awkward since the coronation. When I put a love spell on him to get to Fairy Godmother’s wand, I didn’t think he’d  _actually_  wind up with feelings for me. And feelings, along with tanning well and taking apples from your mother, are not things that I do. Plus, he still likes me, but I don’t like him. We’d be friends if he wasn’t always making heart-eyes at me. How am I supposed to have a normal conversation like that?”

“Maybe lose the glare,” Evie deadpanned.

“The glare is essential.”

Evie laughed in spite of herself, and her arm fell away from her best friend’s waist.

“Come on, let’s take Dude to the field and watch the boys practice for a little bit,” she suggested.

Together they changed their route, falling in step on the way to the Tourney field.

“Did you ever notice how many nice days there are here?” Evie smiled as she looked up at the sky. Adorably, Dude did the same, staring at the clouds as he walked.

“It’s nice,” Mal agreed with a half smile of her own. “Bet it’s the lack of a magical barrier. I’m sure those things play havoc with the weather.”

“The Isle of the Lost  _did_  have a lot of thunder. I always just assumed most of it was your mom.”

“She did have a way with the dramatic weather effects.”

Mal’s smile faded, and Evie instantly regretted bringing the subject up. Before Mal could grow too despondent, Evie reached down and grabbed her hand, holding it tightly.

“No Maleficent,” she said, reiterating their talk back in the dorm room hours earlier. “Just you and the VKs.”

Mal was carrying tension, Evie could feel it when she took her hand, but it eased away and then disappeared entirely when Mal let herself relax and laced their fingers tighter together. Evie understood it, of course—Mal was the only one whose parent was actually here in Auradon. Even if it  _was_  just in the form of a little lizard, the threat of her mother hung over her head where it didn’t hang over the heads of her friends. She was having a tougher time because of it.

“Hey Mal?”

“Hm.”

“You know that even if she does come back—which she won't—we’ll stop her together, just like we did before.”

“That good old Auradon positivity,” Mal teased, commenting on Evie’s outlook.

“Mm, more like VK solidarity.”

That evening, the sun had already set by the time Evie returned to the dorm room, sketchbook in hand.

“Mal, I’m telling you, the art room is  _amazing_!” Evie gushed, the first words out of her mouth. “You know the school gets its art supplies all the way from Corona?”

Mal was parked cross-legged on her bed with, surprise surprise, not her spellbook, but her history book.

“No kidding?” she didn’t look away from the pages, but expressed her interest nonetheless.

Evie set her sketchbook of designs on the desk before making her way to Mal’s bed and falling face-down across the sheets.

“Why didn’t you ever take Ben up on his offer to get you into art classes?” she asked, propping her head in her hand to watch Mal as she read. “The art club here is nice.”

But Mal had stopped reading, slowly closing her book to give her full attention to Evie.

“I thought about it, I really did, but…I’m just not sure the whole club scene is for me,” she quietly said.

“You won’t know until you try. Jay never thought the whole Tourney scene was for him, remember? And while we’re on the subject, Carlos never saw himself into the dog scene, either. You know I’ve been down in the art room a lot these past few weeks working on new designs, I think you’d really like it.”

As she was the expert in doing, Mal evaded.

“So what are you going to sew next, then?”

Evie shook her head.

“Don’t think you can use my love of fashion to distract me anymore, M. I’m too old and too wise for that now,” Evie reached out and playfully tapped Mal’s nose with her finger. Mal smiled.

“A month and a half at Auradon and you’re suddenly older and wiser?”

“Magically, you might say.”

“E…” Mal laughed.

Like Evie had said, she couldn’t be distracted quite so easily tonight, and got back to the topic at hand.

“At the coronation, you made a choice to be good.”

“And? I can be good by myself. And with you, and Carlos, and Jay. Being good and being social are two entirely different things.”

“I’m not concerned with you becoming a social butterfly, I’m concerned with you being happy in Auradon. There’s so much for you here, you can’t find it if you stay shut up in the dorm for the rest of your days…believe me, I know.”

Evie’s face fell. And Mal’s eyes softened.

“…Would you go with me?” she questioned.

Just as quickly as it went downhill, Evie’s expression was lighting up again.

“Even better, you can go with me. Tomorrow evening. Your artwork is amazing, Mal. They’ll love seeing what you can do.”

“Do they like your fashion?”

Evie’s smile got brighter.

“I was going to tell you…three girls commissioned me for dresses today,” she announced.

Mal’s eyes went wide.

“No way??” she blurted.

“Way!! I mean, nothing too fancy, it’s not like anyone’s looking for coronation outfits anymore, but still, they want  _me_  to design for them.”

Mal scooted closer to her, feeling her best friend’s excitement like it was her own.

“E…that is incredible.”

And Evie knew it, even more proud of herself now that she told Mal than she’d been when it actually happened. With a happy sigh she moved and rolled over so her head was in Mal’s lap, gazing up at the canopy of the four-poster bed.

“Is it wrong to say that all my mom’s stifling perfectionism finally paid off?” Evie questioned.

“The Evil Queen had nothing to do with it. That talent is all you. I knew it from the first time I watched you bedazzle your mom’s old cape and call it couture.”

Evie giggled.

“You didn’t even know what couture meant.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not a couture kind of girl.”

The two laughed together, then quieted down. Evie felt fingers in her hair.

“You’ll rule the school soon,” Mal assured her. “Hope all my ruthless mentoring was enough.”

“Wow, is the great Mal of The Isle giving up her throne to me?” Evie played along.

“Well, only for a little bit.”

There was a sharp rapping at the door, then it was cracking open, and Carlos poked his head in. He took a quick glance at the room, casting his eyes first on Evie’s bed, and then spotting the girls together on Mal’s.

“Oh, hey guys. Uh, Mal, quick question about feeding your mom—”

“No bugs,” she flatly said.

“…Yeah, right, totally. I knew that.”

He poked his head back out just as quickly as he poked it in, and the door was shut once more.

Evie sat up and stood up; Mal’s fingers followed a path all the way through her hair as she moved, right down to the ends. Then Evie was on her side of the room, sorting through her dresser to pick out some pajamas.

“By the way, do my lovely eyes deceive me, or is that actual homework I spy?”

“…Guilty,” Mal grabbed her textbook again.

“Need any help?”

“Don’t worry, I have plenty of memorization spells.”

Evie frowned and then whisked her nighttime outfit into the bathroom, leaving the door ajar as she changed so she and Mal could continue to talk.

“I believe the Auradon crowd calls that 'cheating’,” she said.

“Back home we call it 'critical thinking’. And don’t even say what I know you’re about to say; I know you’re going to tell me we aren’t on The Isle anymore.”

There was no answer until Evie shuffled back into the room, straightening out her nightgown.

“…Not quite. I was going to say that…well, this is our home now.”

Mal gave an imperceptible shake of her head and studied the pages before her.

“It’s a place where we live, Evie. That doesn’t make it a home just yet.”

Instead of going to her own bed, Evie returned to Mal’s, sitting down daintily on the edge of it.

“You’re not saying you miss The Isle, are you?” she asked, her tone almost nervous.

“No, but Auradon doesn’t just automatically become home. We just got here.”

Evie sighed blissfully.

“But we could make it home,” her eyes gazed upwards like she was daydreaming.

“Well if anyone could do that, it’d definitely be you,” Mal skimmed over the chapter summary on the bottom of her page and flipped to the next chapter.

“No,  _we_ , as in us. You, me, Carlos, and Jay.”

“One big dysfunctional family.”

“The way we’ve always been!” Evie smiled. She leaned over to hug her, smushing the history book between them. “Goodnight, Mal.”

“Night.”

After Evie had crawled into bed, only Mal’s small endtable lamp bathed her side of the room in a warm glow, leaving Evie’s side dark and dim. With her asleep and no one else watching, it was a very tempting thought to drop the diligence and toss the homework aside for the night, but no, Mal persisted. She read on, but the sounds of Evie’s slow and steady breathing across the room were lulling her eyes shut and dulling her senses as she started to drift off. It wasn’t until she realized she’d been rereading the same five sentences over and over again that she tossed in the towel and snapped the book shut.

She didn’t know how much time had passed between her head hitting the pillow and the loud knocking beginning to rouse her and Evie awake, but it didn’t feel like enough. Evie, whose first groggy thought was that Mal would sleep right through the noise, rolled out of bed to grudgingly answer the door. Mal, who was still half asleep, rolled out of bed on a kind of zombified autopilot, not entirely sure what she was doing or where she was going. Her eyes were still closed as her feet dragged across the carpet, and as such, she bumped right into Evie on their collective path to the door.

“This way, Mal,” Evie sighed sleepily, wrapping her arm around Mal’s waist to guide her.

“Mmf,” was all the other girl muttered.

Her eyes were only just starting to blink open when she blindly reached out for the doorknob, fumbled with the lock, and then opened the door. It was through those half-lidded eyes that she saw the blurry yet unmistakable shapes of Jay and Carlos out in the hall.

“…Are you insane?” Mal meant it as a question, but her voice was flat, monotone, and a little bit threatening with no uptick of inquiry.

Evie, who unknowingly hadn’t let go of Mal even though the two of them had made it to the door, stared at the boys like they were something alien and strange.

“ _Carlos_  couldn’t sleep,” Jay said accusingly, crossing his arms and cutting his eyes sideways at the kid.

“Not a wink. So, I was on my laptop, just passing the time, when I found—”

“And apparently he thought this couldn’t wait until morning,” Jay dryly interrupted.

“It’s called a brookie,” Carlos finished.

“…Are you insane?” Mal repeated.

“No, see,” Carlos carried his laptop along with him, turning it out to show the girls the screen. “It’s a brownie and a cookie mixed together.”

“…I could go for a midnight snack,” Evie yawned, trying to curb Mal’s ire.

Mal swiveled her head towards her.

“Are  _you_  insane?”

“No, a little hungry,” Evie said. “Come on guys, a sneak away for old time’s sake, before all the Auradon goodness really kicks in and we learn to stop wandering the halls past curfew.”

“Evie—” Mal started to object.

“It’s Sunday, M. We don’t have to be up early for school in the morning. A late night on the weekend isn’t going to kill us.”

“Plus, brookies,” Carlos added seriously.

Mal didn’t know why, but she could never seem to get things her way lately when it came to Evie. Whether it was her cool logic, her rational explanations, or just the sparkling shimmer in her eyes when she really wanted whatever it was they were arguing about, Mal kept finding herself giving up without much of a fight.

“…Lead the way,” she gestured down the hall, just barely lit by the dimmed wall sconces.

The four of them, pajama-clad, crept softly and silently along the carpeted corridor, knowing they had a bit of a ways to go before they reached the kitchen.

“Mal, you gonna do the honors?” Carlos fell into step beside her and passed over the laptop so she could see the recipe.

“You guys, I put some spells in a couple pastries, that doesn’t automatically make me the royal baker,” she chuckled.

“Nah, but that doesn’t matter when you have anti set-the-kitchen-on-fire spells,” Jay teased her.

“No one’s setting the kitchen on fire, accidentally or otherwise,” Evie said.

“Yes ma'am,” the other three chorused, impish smirks all around.

Jay slowed them down when they approached a grand staircase leading higher up into the school building, specifically, to Fairy Godmother’s wing. Goodness was not a thing that became fully-fledged overnight, and as such, the headmistress had caught one or more of them sneaking around after lights out (but being masters of the puppy-dog eyes, they always managed to avoid punishment). However, as Isle kids, they also always knew when they were pushing their luck, and getting caught now would make one too many times. So it was on literal tiptoes they inched past the staircase, with Jay keeping an eye on the stairs, Mal and Evie keeping an eye on the hall ahead of them, and Carlos trying desperately to hold in a sneeze.

Mission accomplished, they reached the kitchen unscathed. Mal strode right in, flicked on the lights, and set the laptop down on the large center island to get a better look than she had when she’d been walking.

“Alright, let’s do this. Jay, bowl, baking pan, whisk. Carlos, oven, 350. Evie, ingredients.”

Evie came over and read over Mal’s shoulder.

“Lots of sweet stuff,” she noted.

“Which is why I put you in charge of it.”

Evie laughed and gave Mal a playful shove.

“I can’t believe you just said that!”

“I can,” Carlos whispered to Jay.

Four teens baking together equaled lots of flour on faces and lots of stolen chocolate chips, and after 25 minutes, with their dessert cooling on the counter, Evie went around to dutifully dote on everyone. Jay was the hardest to clean, fidgeting like a rowdy little boy squirming away from his mother as Evie tried to wipe the flour off. Carlos was the easiest, standing there obediently while the soft cloth scrubbed at his cheeks. And Mal, Mal was somewhere in between.

“I got it, I can do it myself,” she insisted, backing away and rubbing her face, ironically missing the flour entirely.

“Mal, just come here,” Evie huffed, not in the mood for a Round Two of this after Jay.

Mal gave Evie a bit of a chase, weaving around the counters and ducking her friend here and there, but when she was caught she sportingly accepted defeat. Flour sat right at the tip of her little nose, which scrunched up reflexively when she saw the cloth come towards her and just made the whole process more difficult.

The boys stared avidly at the brookies, pretending not to notice just how intently Evie cupped Mal’s cheek with one hand to hold her still while she dabbed at her nose.

“…I told you I could do it myself,” Mal petulantly repeated.

“You lied.”

“But obviously not very well, I think that counts as character development.”

In spite of their shared sweet tooth, they ended up with leftovers, which they snuck back with them en route to the dorms. At Mal and Evie’s door, Carlos thanked them for indulging himself and indulging Jay, Jay denied having any part in the crazy scheme, they said goodnight, and went their separate ways. Mal all but dove headfirst back into bed, curling up on her pillow with a relaxed sigh. She didn’t say a word, planning to simply drift off right then and there, but Evie’s voice floated musically through the dark room and to her ears.

“Mal?”

“Hm.”

“I like weekends here in Auradon.”

“They’re cool,” Mal murmured her agreement.

“There’s so much more to do here than there is on The Isle…I’ve been thinking I want to see the city.”

“What city?”

“ _The_  city, Auradon!” Evie said eagerly. “It’s just a carriage ride away from the school.”

Mal thought about it; long hard thoughts that didn’t take a long hard time because of how glaringly obvious the reality was. It would be their first real trip to the city, not counting how they skirted through it when they paid a visit to the Museum of Cultural History in the dead of night. Evie had long since dreamed of the glittering wonder the royal city (any royal city, to be honest) would hold. Mal knew the girl would stride right through the streets with wide eyes and a wide heart, waiting to see the magic and majesty firsthand.

And that was the problem.

Mal slowly sat up in her bed, not bothering to turn on the lamp because she knew Evie could see her.

“E…Auradon Prep may be more or less pro-VK now—honestly, some with a little more emphasis on the 'less'—but that doesn’t mean the rest of the kingdom feels the same. People don’t change their minds that easily, to a lot of them we’re still just the rotten kids from The Isle. And if your first day out on the town was ruined by, I don’t know, stink eyes and whispering behind your back—”

“I’m a rotten kid from The Isle, just like you said. I can handle a little whispering,” there was a smile hiding in Evie’s voice.

“But I can’t handle that crushing doe-eyed look you get on your face when something’s upset you,” Mal admitted with a sigh.

“Aww,” Evie gushed. “Magic mirror in my nightstand, who’s the sweetest in the land?”

“I’m not sweet,” Mal grumbled petulantly, put off by her own soft spot and flopping back down onto her pillow. “I’m rotten.”

“I thought you were good now?” Evie playfully joked.

“Good and rotten.”

“To the core.”

* * *

Carlos was flat on his stomach, hanging over the side of Mal’s bed and playing a rather lazy game of fetch with Dude by merely rolling the ball across the floor and waiting for his dog to roll it back with his nose.

“What are you so worried about, girl?” he asked. “You graffiti half the school when you first get here and now you don’t want people to see your artwork?”

Jay smirked, lounging with his feet propped up on the desk while he played games on the phone he stole from Chad during his first week at school, which he never thought to return even after the whole switch to good because—well, it was Chad.

“Mal’s too much of a visionary for the stuffy Auradon crowd. They just won’t 'get’ her,” he teased.

Passing by, Evie gave him a light whap on the back of his beanie.

“Hush, it’s going to go great,” she said. “By the end of the week everyone’s going to want a Mal original on their walls.”

“And an Evie original in their closets,” Mal smiled, clutching her sketchbook as she stood by the door.

Mal loathed to admit that she was nervous, but it showed in her posture, and the way she clung to her sketchbook for dear life like someone would have to fight it out of her hands or die trying. But what in the world did she have to be nervous about? Carlos was absolutely right—graffiti on the lockers, sketches in the middle of class, doodles in the corners of the worksheets she handed in; Mal was an artist and darn proud of it. Art had been her salvation on The Isle, helped her bond with Evie, kept her sane at Auradon Prep when the never-ending tidal wave of prissy pink princesses made her want to scratch someone’s eyes out. It was her thing, and she owned it.

So what was she worried about? Certainly not judgement from the Auradon kids, she couldn’t give a flying carpet about any criticisms they would dare to give out.

“The girls are going places,” Carlos noted, watching Dude give up their game to flop onto his back. “Should we be jealous?”

“I’m athletic and good-looking, I don’t need to go anyplace else,” Jay said firmly.

Evie stopped at the desk for just a moment to browse through the folder she carried with her; individual pencil sketches of suits and dresses that she was taking down to the art room to color. Satisfied with what she was bringing, she tucked the folder under her arm and went to the door.

“Ready to go?” she held out her hand to Mal, and Mal shifted her sketchbook to take it.

Whatever it was she was worrying about, it began to fade away like dust in the wind when Evie’s fingers made the perfect fit inside of hers.

“Yeah, ready. E, I’ve got pencils and stuff right here in the room, you could’ve just used those to color your sketches.”

“I know that, but then I wouldn’t have an excuse to take you to the art room and show you off,” Evie’s smile was dazzling. She looked at the boys over her shoulder. “We’ll meet you later in the dining hall for dinner.”

“Don’t break anything,” Mal warned, knowing at least one high-energy boy would be left unsupervised in her dorm.

Jay and Carlos just waved goodbye, and then hand in hand the girls stepped out into the hallway together and shut the door behind them.

“…You think they know?” Carlos asked.

Jay shook his head.

“They don’t have a clue. Not a single clue.”

“…That’s kind of adorable,” Carlos chuckled.

For both Evie and Mal, there were familiar faces in the art room, some more prominent than others.

“…Hi Evie,” Doug’s attention was drawn to her the second she walked in, gazing at her with a—of course—dopey smile.

“Doug!” Surprised to see him, Evie went right over the the table he and two others sat at, dragging Mal along with her. “What are you doing down here?”

“Band posters. We’ve got a recital coming up,” he told her.

Mal glanced down at the posterboard Doug and the other two were working on, amused by the little doodle of a trumpet that was obviously Doug’s handiwork.

Lonnie appeared then, coming from the back of the room to join them. She had seen a lot of Evie the past few days, sitting in on club meetings for her art history homework and being the first to offer congratulations when Evie got her commissions.

“Hey, you brought Mal with you! Perfect!” she said cheerily.

Mal raised an eyebrow.

“Why perfect?”

“Well, I mean, you’re obviously just  _meant_  for art club,” Lonnie explained, hovering over Doug, who abandoned his poster to stay fixated on Evie.

“I’m not joining the club,” Mal denied.

“Not yet, anyway. Mal needs a little convincing. And a healthy dose of brown-nosing.”

Overhearing, other kids started to draw near, curiosity piqued.

“You brought your sketchbook, Mal?” one asked.

More eyes were on her now than she really cared for. Might as well just get it over with.

She sat down at the other end of the desk Doug and his friends were seated at, setting her sketchbook down in front of her. Like children ready for storytime, the art club gathered around her chair to have a look. Evie was standing right behind her, watching over Mal’s shoulder. Mal flipped the book horizontally and opened it to the first page. No color on this one, but everything done in pencil.

“Alright, this is our old hideout back on The Isle of the Lost,” she said.

“Home away from home,” in spite of The Isle, Evie held good memories of their hideout, and spoke fondly of it as she looked over Mal’s drawing.

“Spent a lot of hours there. Mostly trying to avoid our parents. Good times.”

Mal turned the page. A towering structure of stone, almost every individual brick beautifully detailed again in pencil, separate pointed turrets dotted here and there on the page from different angles.

“My mother’s castle,” Mal said next, not wanting to dwell on it for too long and turning to the next page.

She skipped over most of the absentminded doodles to showcase her more thought-out work; different parts of the VK hideout, her “Long Live Evil” crest, her mother’s scepter, the Evil Queen’s castle, a sketch of an Isle street clearly done from a rooftop, the collapsed bridge, even the view of Auradon from the island. Some of Mal’s stuff was all pencil, some was in color, some was inked. But she certainly had everyone’s undivided attention, and as she got to the middle of the sketchbook it was clear that this was her more recent artwork. For here was illustrated her life in Auradon, shown by an unfinished drawing of the school, the one gorgeous rendering of Fairy Godmother’s wand, and a humorous depiction of the Beast statue coming to life and roaring at a poor passerby who looked suspiciously like Audrey.

“You draw anything and everything that has some kind of meaning to you,” Lonnie noted.

As Mal turned some more within the sketchbook, there was less grand full-page work and more smaller drawings fitted five or six to a page. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and awestruck to see an incredible sketch of Jay among the other drawings, complete with that mischievous grin. Mal, who had stopped narrating at this point and let everyone simply “ooh” and “ahh” around her, just relegated herself to flipping page after page and having a nice little show herself. It didn’t matter if she was the artist, going through one’s own sketchbook beginning to end was always an adventure in itself.

A drawing of Carlos’ face, a drawing of Evie. A page turn. A drawing of Evie. A cute cartoony version of Dude chasing a tennis ball. Another “Long Live Evil” crest and another Evie. A page turn. Ferocious dragons, one resembling her mother, one long and serpentine. A sketch of Evie in pencil with only her hair skillfully colored blue. Carlos smiling. A pirate ship, probably done on one out of the many occasions she’d gotten bored with her history homework but remained fixated on its subject matter. A page turn. Jay with messy hair after taking off his beanie. Fairies gathering together around a flower. Evie from the side, eyes perfectly and expressively drawn to show how they stared off intently at something in the distance.

“Mal…” Evie said quietly.

She took over then, going through the pages instead of Mal. After the coronation, it made perfect sense that Mal would take to drawing and redrawing her friends and one true family, for as Lonnie had mentioned the girl’s subject matter being all things that meant something to her, the VKs meant even more to her now than they ever had before. There was plenty of Jay, and plenty of Carlos, but no doubt about it—the majority was all Evie.

“Mal, I’ve been through your sketchbook dozens of times, why haven’t I ever seen these?” Evie asked, delighted to see herself captured so masterfully. “They’re amazing!”

Doug, riveted just like everyone else, couldn’t stop his eyes from instinctively going to Evie when she spoke up. Then they went to Mal, who was tilting her head back to look up at Evie and relish her approval. His face seemed to fall.

“Wow, Mal,” something that resembled a defeated yet gracious smile tugged at his lips. “You must really…”

He trailed off, stopping himself.

“I must really what?” Mal questioned.

“…You must have really worked hard to get this amazing. Self-taught?”

“Well, yeah. Villains are usually too busy scheming to care about arts and humanities.”

Evie had taken the sketchbook for herself, studying each drawing of her face with glittering eyes, absolutely enthralled.

“Mal, we’d love to have you join us,” one of the art guys said. “Really. You’re like, the best artist in all of Auradon Prep.”

“In all of Auradon,” Evie chimed in.

“She’s probably not wrong,” Mal said haughtily. “…Look, I’ll think about it. But no promises.”

The others smiled eagerly and nodded in understanding. The art show was essentially over now that Evie had commandeered the sketchbook for her own personal viewing, and the little crowd gathered around her and Mal disbanded. Evie left her spot behind Mal in favor of pulling up a chair and settling in next to her.

“I can’t believe you did all these drawings of me. There’s so many!”

“You’re a nice subject,” Mal said easily.

“The—”

“—Fairest of them all, I know,” Mal finished with a little laugh.

“You’re the best, Mal,” Evie giggled.

“That’s me.”

Doug had busied himself with the band poster with a little sigh, but Lonnie had been idly listening in on the girls’ interaction, and looked up just in time to see how Evie’s hand automatically and reflexively went to rest on Mal’s when they laughed, and the way they subtly leaned in together with laughter between them.

“Just think,” Evie started. “If you’d joined the first time around, you could’ve been painting Ben’s portraits by now.”

“I doubt that.”

Ooh, ooh, Lonnie knew this one. She hadn’t paid attention in art history for nothing.

“No, Evie’s right,” she nodded at the girl. “Kids in the art club are usually the best, and the  _best_ of the best end up at the Auradon Art Academy, where they go on to be royal painters, sculptors, illustrators, even architects. And there’s a lot of royalty in Auradon, being a royal anything-of-theirs keeps you pretty busy.”

Evie’s face lit up.

“Can’t you just see it? Madam Mal, Artist to the Royal Family.”

“Sure. Mal, Daughter of Maleficent, Artist to the Royal Family,” Mal scoffed. “And the day I go by 'Madam’ is the day I run headfirst into dragon fire.”

Mal didn’t see it, but Evie did.

That night, while Mal was fast asleep across the room, Evie laid awake, her chance at evening dreams getting shoved aside by daydreams. Daydreams of seeing her fashions strolling by on street to street, galleries full of Mal’s art. Cell phones and tablets with Carlos’ name all over them, state of the art tech that never glitched, never faltered (either that or “De Vil’s Dog Grooming” becoming a household name all throughout the kingdom). Jay, Tourney superstar, as much the face of Auradon as any king or queen in any castle or palace, enlisting Chad to make out all his autographs to avoid hand cramps on game day and setting Mal loose on him when he “accidentally” signed his own name one too many times.

Mal didn’t see it, but Evie did.

They had futures here in Auradon.

They had a place where they each could belong.

On The Isle, there was a path they all walked day in and day out. One foot in front of the other, over and over again, steadily and rhythmically, until they reached their eventual destination—their parents.

Mal was to rule, cruel and merciless, with a stone cold heart that wouldn’t even have room for the VKs, unless she had three spots that needed filling in her army of minions. Evie was to marry, then promptly shut herself up in a glittering glass case to be admired and adored for the rest of her days—a fate ironically more Snow White than the Evil Queen probably ever realized. Jay would have to spend his days watching what he touched, what with those sticky fingers of his. The human shovel, scooping up the toys and trinkets so Jafar could make a pretty coin, and what reward would Jay see for it? Another day of shopping with endless coupons for five-finger discounts. Carlos’ path was less a path and more a roundabout, for every step he walked day in and day out led him right back to fluffing furs and oiling bear traps, occasionally asking Jay to pay a visit to the salon and use a five-finger discount on shampoo and conditioner because his mother’s hair care rituals were getting expensive.

Their paths on The Isle would lead them straight to giant brick walls in the shape of Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Jafar, and Cruella, and with a confusing combination of not knowing any better and not having any other choice, the VKs just kept on walking.

Here, in Auradon, the paths didn’t end in giant brick walls. They tapered off close to sunsets, and the beach, and shimmering green glades where the birds would come down to join you for a picnic if you sang loud enough. But what Evie liked most of all? The paths ended in even more paths. When one chapter closed, another one would open, and when one book was read all the way through, another one would start to be written. She couldn’t wait to walk these paths with her friends close by. She couldn’t wait to walk these paths with Mal. Mal, the little punk with a big heart, who she couldn’t imagine her life without.

Who was currently making distressed mutters across the room in her sleep.

“Uh oh…” Evie threw the covers off and scrambled out of her bed.

She crossed the floor in a flash and climbed right up next to Mal, kneeling over her and trying to shake her awake.

“Mal? Mal! It’s Evie, wake up.”

She kept her voice calm but urgent as her best friend’s muttering got louder and more frantic.

“Come on Mal, wake up,” she shook the girl’s shoulder a little harder.

There was a sharp intake of breath, and Evie saw the telltale flash of green when Mal rocketed upright in bed. She felt someone’s hand on her, and quite likely before her mind could even process what was happening, her body was lurching away from Evie in an instant and scooting over on the bed. Evie held her hands up as if in surrender, staying perfectly still so Mal could see her as her eyes adjusted to the dark and turned their normal, natural shade of green. Evie’s voice was soft, careful.

“It’s me, M.”

Mal deflated into a slightly (very slightly) more relaxed state with a long exhale, breathing heavily like she’d just run a marathon.

“Another nightmare,” Evie said with finality, not needing any kind of confirmation.

Mal looked to her.

“…What?”

“I know you’ve been having nightmares since Ben’s coronation.”

“I have not,” Mal quickly said.

“You have so. Your hair is always a mess in the mornings now—from tossing and turning in your sleep.”

Mal deflated even more.

“Evie…” she whispered, as if saying her name was some kind of cure-all.

“So now that you know I know your secret, are you finally going to tell me what you’ve been dreaming about? Or should I just make an educated guess?”

“What would you guess?” Mal asked.

“Facing a dragon.”

Mal actually flinched.

“…Facing a dragon that tries to kill me. Sometimes she—… _it_  does,” she said softly, oh so softly.

Evie was silent.

“It’s not always at the coronation,” Mal went on, looking past Evie completely. “Sometimes it’s in the middle of class. Sometimes it’s even here in the dorm.”

Evie didn’t care that they were on polar opposite ends of the bed; she moved right on over to get close enough to wrap her hand around Mal’s.

“…M, we’re safe here in Auradon. You heard it straight from Fairy Godmother herself, your mom is stuck as that little lizard until she can learn to love, and when she’s learned to love, you won’t have to be afraid of her anymore. Besides, we’d never let her hurt you. The days of constantly looking over our shoulders for our parents are done.”

Mal didn’t seem to be listening.

“She’s just down the hall…” she said partly to herself.

“But _I_  am right  _here_ ,” Evie said with emphasis. “I’ve helped fight off a dragon before, and I can do it again.”

Mal gently tugged her hand free. Undeterred, Evie moved it to her best friend’s face, gliding her thumb back and forth across Mal’s cheek.

“Feel safe with me?” Evie asked.

“…Yeah, I do, but—”

“But you’re sleepy. You just want to have a good night’s rest without evil dragons interrupting your dreams. I’ll stay with you, if you want.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll stay right here while you fall back asleep, but only if you want me to.”

Even in the dark, it was easy to tell that Mal was caught off guard.

“…Sure,” was all she said, a touch of confusion in her tone.

So Evie lowered her hand, and Mal slowly fell back onto her pillow, cautiously allowing her eyes to drift shut. When Evie said she’d stay right there, Mal had expected, well,  _right there_. As in the exact spot, and the exact protective posture she’d adopted. Mal hadn’t expected the rustling of the covers as Evie got comfortable underneath them and the feel of her coming in close to share in the one single pillow.

“What are you doing?” Mal asked, not bothering to open her eyes again.

“Sleeping.”

“Here. In my bed.”

“To protect you from dragons.”

“You can’t do that from across the room?”

“Nope. Too far away. Can’t have slow reaction time when it comes to a dragon.”

Mal decided to play along.

“But it’s a known fact that dragons love princesses. If one comes in it’ll go straight for you no matter where in the room you are,” she said.

“Sparing you in the process. The perfect plan.”

“Except for the part where I have to get out of my warm bed to come rescue you. Although, mom would be more proud if I just let it eat you.”

Evie rolled over and propped herself up on one elbow, leaning over Mal. Mal peeked a sleepy eye open at her.

“Nevermind your mom. _I’m_  proud of you,” Evie smiled. “For standing up to her, sticking with your friends, deciding who you want to be all on your own.”

“E…”

Evie lightly brushed a few waves of purple from out of Mal’s face.

“I’m proud of you,” she repeated.

Both eyes open now, Mal looked up and watched as Evie laid down and settled into the section of pillow she’d claimed as her own.

“Goodnight, M.”

Mal waited, waited until the tingly feeling left behind where Evie’s fingers had ghosted over her forehead faded away. Huh. Weird.

“…Night, Evie.”


	2. Chapter 2

“A what?” Fairy Godmother blurted.  
  
“A ride into the city.  I didn’t know if we’d go by school car, or the limo, or carriage—I personally would  _love_  to go by carriage, by the way, just throwing that out there,” Evie gushed, standing in front of the headmistress’ desk.  
  
“You all want to see the city of Auradon,” Fairy Godmother’s eyes sparkled and her smile beamed.  
  
“Actually, the boys can’t make it.  I asked.  They were…weirdly evasive about the other plans they had.  It would just be me and Mal.”  
  
“You and Mal…ah, I see.”  
  
Unless it came to Jane, Fairy Godmother could always read the goings-on at Auradon Prep like a book.  She did indeed see.

“Well, you four have done wonderfully since the coronation, adjusting and keeping up with school; I can certainly arrange something.  My gift to you.”  
  
Evie gasped, a beautiful grin lighting up the office.  
  
“Really??  Oh, Fairy Godmother, thank you!!”  
  
“You are very welcome, Evie.”  
  
Evie held in a delighted squeal as she all but skipped from the headmistress’ office, back out into the corridor and down the grand staircase.  
  
Another week gone, another weekend upon them.    
  
When she’d woken up next to Mal that morning, having kept her company after yet another nightmare, Evie was instantly overcome by a wave of Auradon magic.  Birds chirped and twittered outside the windows, and little beams of sunlight glittered like diamonds as they filtered in through cracks in the curtains.  Evie sat up and watched dust motes play in the sun for a minute before she definitively decided she was not going to spend a day like this inside.   
  
Since it had been a ridiculous a.m. hour when Mal had awoken from her nightmare, Evie moved slowly and quietly so as not to disturb her sleep.  Mal was out like a light when a dressed and ready Evie snuck out of the dorm, and still out like a light when she returned from visiting Fairy Godmother.  But with the morning hours quickly passing into afternoon, she tentatively decided to wake her up.  Over the past week she’d learned just  _how_  to wake her up, learned that things like trailing her fingers through her hair and brushing a hand across her cheek garnered a better reaction than lightly nudging her shoulder, no matter how carefully she did it.  So with Mal laying on her back, a hand across the cheek it was.  
  
“M,” Evie hummed.  "Time to wake up.“  
  
In just seconds Mal’s eyes were blinking open, not the supernatural green of a startled sorceress, but the soft meadow green of a sleepy teenager.  Without even realizing it, a smile tugged the corner of her lips when Evie was the first thing she saw, but it melded into a confused frown soon enough.  
  
"Why are you dressed?” she murmured.  
  
“Because it’s almost eleven in the morning, sleepyhead.”  
  
“Oh, is that all?” Mal yawned and rolled over, turning her back to Evie and snuggling deeper into her pillow.  
  
“Mal, it’s time to get up,” Evie said again.  
  
“Look, I finished a six-page long research paper on Pinocchio for Goodness class last night, you are not getting me out of this bed anytime before noon.”  
  
Mal yanked the covers over her head.  Evie, in turn, yanked them right back off.  
  
“What if I told you I’m taking you out?” she slyly mentioned.  
  
“Then you’re definitely not getting me out of this bed anytime before noon.”  
  
Evie reached for Mal’s hand and pulled her upright into a sitting position; Mal complained with a groan the entire way up.  
  
“I made plans,” Evie smiled.  "You and me.“  
  
Mal yawned again, pulling her hand free from Evie’s to rub her eyes.  
  
"What about Jay and Carlos?”  
  
“They were part of the plans too, but apparently they’ve got better things to do.  Weaseled their way out faster than I’ve ever seen any Isle kid weasel their way out of something.  So now it looks like it’s just you and me.”  
  
“What kind of plans are these, exactly?”  
  
“Surprise plans.  So come on, get up and get dressed.”  
  
Evie oh-so-slyly mentioned something casual, ambling by to open the curtains when Mal had finally gotten out of bed and wandered over to her dresser, so casual it was—black jeans (ripped, of course), comfy shirt, leather jacket.  It wasn’t like Mal could really, truly object to the spontaneity in any way.  One, her own plans for the Saturday were nonexistent, and two, it was Evie, Evie with that dazzling shine in her eyes and her excitement clearly building with each passing minute.  As if she could say no to that.  
  
Morning routine done and over with soon enough, Mal stood before the floor-length mirror to flip her hair out from the collar of her jacket, then turned to Evie, who’d been gazing out the window at the gorgeous day outside.  
  
“Listen, E, you’re my best friend, no doubt about it, but if you keep insisting on the wake-up calls day after day then we’re going to have a problem,” the tiredness still hadn’t fully cleared from Mal’s eyes yet.  
  
Evie turned too, pulling herself away from the Auradon view to give her full attention to Mal.  
  
“How did you sleep last night?” she asked seriously.  
  
“…Better.”  
  
Evie frowned.  For a change, Mal was actually the one who had woken  _her_  up, bolting upwards from her pillow with a resounding “NO!!” as her recurring nightmare hit its crescendo.  Evie was across the room in seconds, climbing onto the bedsheets and right away putting her arms around a shivering Mal.  Just like before, she settled right in at her best friend’s side, and Mal fell back into what appeared to be a more restful and easy sleep this time around.  
  
“Only ‘better’?” Evie prodded, fearing what would happen if the nightmares kept going on this way.  
  
Mal’s chuckle was dry and unamused.  
  
“Well it’s not like everything’s suddenly going to be all 'Once Upon a Dream’, Evie.  But yeah…better.  With you there, at least.  I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that Big Bad Mal of the Isle needs a security blanket now, but whatever.”  
  
“Maybe you should pay a visit to the boys’ room,” Evie suggested.  
  
“Uh, no,” Mal left the reflection of the mirror to dig her shoes out from under the bed.  
  
She’d steered clear of Jay and Carlos’ dorm ever since they took over petsitting Maleficent, always waiting for them to come to hers or to meet up somewhere else within the school.  
  
“But if you see that she’s just a lizard, remind yourself that there’s nothing to be afraid of—”  
  
“I said no, Evie,” Mal snapped.  
  
Evie backed down.  
  
“…If you say so,” she conceded, letting the matter drop.  "You look amazing, by the way.“  
  
Mal glanced down at herself like she hadn’t just seen her entire outfit in the mirror.  
  
"Oh, thanks.  So do you, as always.”  
  
“Yeah?” Evie giggled, checking out her own attire too.  
  
“Are you kidding?  Unfairly gorgeous from day one.”  
  
“Thank you, Mal.  Breakfast first?”  
  
“Think there’s anything good?” Mal joked.  There was no such thing as a bad meal at Auradon Prep.  
  
“Let’s find out,” Evie went to loop her arm through Mal’s, and together they left the room.  
  
There really was no such thing as a bad meal at Auradon Prep.  The pair walked into the dining hall to find plate upon plate of crepes; drizzled with chocolate and sugar, but no strawberries, to Mal’s dismay.  Jay and Carlos had a preternatural ability to beat them to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so as always it was the girls who joined them, and not the other way around.  
  
“What, do you guys have VIP early access to the dining room?” Mal asked.  
  
Jay shrugged.  
  
“Nope, you just like sleeping in more than Evie likes mirrors.”  
  
“Can’t believe she dragged you out of bed on a weekend,” Carlos chuckled.  
  
“You and me both,” Mal sighed.  
  
Evie stayed distracted all through breakfast, gazing out the windows, not partaking in the conversation much.  It wasn’t until Mal, with an empty plate, nudged her with her elbow that Evie zoned back into reality.  
  
“E, your food’s cold,” Mal eyed her friend’s half-eaten crepe.  
  
But Evie’s gaze was drawn back to the windows, and a big smile broke out across her face.  
  
“That’s okay,” she quickly said.  "Mal, let’s go.“  
  
She grabbed Mal’s hand and pulled her from her chair.  
  
"Uh, and where is it that we’re going??” Mal questioned, almost stumbling as Evie eagerly tugged her along.  
  
“Our plans!” Evie answered, bouncing with every step.  
  
“Have fun,” Carlos and Jay said together, both with smirks that the girls didn’t see.  
  
Mal was so grateful when they reached King Beast’s statue in the front courtyard; she was certain her arm was just seconds away from being yanked out of its socket.  But Evie finally came to a stop on the gravel path, and Mal along with her, the latter blinking in astonishment.  
  
“ _What_  is  _that_??” Mal blurted.  
  
It was a purely rhetorical inquiry, her eyes were fully functional and perfectly capable of seeing that it was a horse-drawn carriage, of sapphire blues and gilded golds.  
  
“ _That_  is our ride today,” Evie said triumphantly.  "A present from Fairy Godmother.”  
  
“…Evie, what in the world did that mind of yours scheme up this time?”  
  
“It’s still a secret.  You’ll see.”  
  
Evie helped the shorter Mal up into the carriage, then joined her at her side.   The carriage door closed, they heard the shake of the reins, the clop of horse hooves, and then they were moving.  Mal’s eyes darted all around; out the window, out the window on the other side, over to Evie, to the seat across from them, even to the ceiling.  
  
“Seriously, what is happening?” she asked again.  "The last time I had a carriage ride, it led to a coronation that was unceremoniously crashed by my mother.  Good times, they were not.“  
  
"Sometimes carriages lead to balls.  Just ask Cinderella.”  
  
“I’m not dressed for a ball,” Mal lifted a leg to point out her jeans.  
  
“I was  _trying_  to keep it a surprise, but since it looks like you’re about to bolt at any minute…” Evie laughed.  "We’re spending the day in Auradon.  Seeing every sight the royal city has to see.“  
  
Wow, did the royal city have a lot of sights.  
  
The carriage dropped them off right at the city gates, invitingly thrown wide, and Auradon glittered like a jewel.  
  
"Mal…” Evie gasped, positively overwhelmed by the skyline.  
  
“Swank,” Mal said.  "And again I feel underdressed.“  
  
"We’re really in Auradon…” Evie’s feet carried her forward through the gates in a daydreaming daze.  Mal followed after.  
  
“Big day for the daughters of evil, huh?”  
  
Auradon fashion, like feelings, tanning well, and taking apples from Evie’s mother, was another thing that Mal did not do.  And yet, she had no complaints as Evie toted her from boutique to boutique around Auradon’s downtown.  The bright and pastel colors, the lace, the ribbons, the shocking lack of leather and studs, it was all part of the repertoire.  Evie had never seen  _so_  many clothes in one place before,  _so_  many choices to pick from.  Shirts, skirts, dresses, hats, cardigans, sweaters, shawls—even if the things were nowhere near Evie’s style, from store to store she fawned over them nonetheless.  
  
On any other occasion, Mal would’ve been bored to tears, standing around while Evie dove into clothing racks and browsed through what Mal would’ve sworn were the exact same ten pairs of jeans.  
  
“Mal, you like?” Evie asked, holding up a pair.  
  
With Mal’s untrained eye they were just plain old jeans, seriously lacking in the leather and studs she was keeping a lookout for, but with her mind’s eye she did what Evie was silently asking and imagined how they’d look being worn by her best friend.  
  
“I very like,” she smiled.  
  
They wasted a good two hours in a sea of clothes, at the end of which Evie startlingly came out of it with less bags than Mal would’ve expected.  Together, they stepped out onto the sunny streets of Auradon once more, where Mal offered to carry two of Evie’s bags and leave her with just the one.  
  
“Have you  _ever_ seen so many clothes in your entire life??” Evie squealed, relishing her afternoon’s work as she wrapped her arm around Mal’s and clung to her.  
  
“It’s like the kingdom was made for you,” Mal agreed.  "You were definitely meant to be an Auradon girl.“  
  
It was the perfect sort of day for no plans, for wandering around aimlessly with no destination in mind and seeing where their feet would take them.  Mal and Evie definitely stood out in a crowd, that was a fact, and while Evie marveled at the city’s regal architecture and the way everything seemed to resemble a castle, Mal was watching the faces of Auradon that bustled by around them.  Someone would recognize them, surely.  Ben’s proclamation to bring the VKs to Auradon Prep had certainly shaken up the school, and for an institution so prestigious, the reverberations of that had to have carried back to the city.  Sure, everyone had watched from their TVs as Mal and her gang chose good and defeated Maleficent with the power of it, but they’d also watched Mal and her gang snag Fairy Godmother’s wand and sit seconds away from freeing The Isle of the Lost and inciting chaos within the kingdom.  
  
Evie was having such a good day, Mal didn’t know what she’d do if someone came along and spoiled it with a "What is the  _Evil Queen’s_ daughter doing here?” scowl.  
  
“Mal?” Evie tugged on her arm, having noticed the somewhat intense set to her face.  
  
Mal drew herself out of it, becoming aware of the expression she wore and slowly replacing it with an easygoing smile.  
  
“Sorry.  Daydreaming.”   
  
“You?  Daydreaming?” Evie laughed.  
  
“Can you blame me?”  
  
“Not in the slightest.  I’m just sorry Jay and Carlos are missing this.”  
  
“But really though, when was the last time it was just you and me?” Mal wondered with a chuckle.  
  
“It feels like it’s been you and me a lot lately.”  
  
“Bad thing?” Mal teased.  
  
“ _Wonderful_  thing.”  
  
Wonderful things.  Like buying new clothes, passing through the delightful mist of smells from a bakery, finding an ice cream shop, watching Mal dig into a cone of strawberry and get a splash of pink on her nose.  
  
“…What?” Mal asked, watching Evie giggle.  
  
“Nothing, it’s just…you seem to have a habit of getting food on your face lately,” Evie reached across the table with her napkin, dabbing at Mal’s nose.  
  
Wonderful things.  Like wiling away another hour in a bookstore, an out-of-the-way place that would have Queen Belle envious for the days of her youth.  Evie got her hands on a coffee table book with large, glossy pictures of the various outfits and dresses Auradon’s princesses had worn along their journeys to their happy endings, fascinated at once.  She sat down on a cozy little couch to browse through it, leaning over the pages intently as she did.  Mal herself took a seat on the arm of the sofa, looking through the pictures as well yet constantly stopping to tuck strands of Evie’s hair behind her ear when they fell into her face.  
  
“You’ll be in a book like this someday,” Mal said easily.  
  
“Mal,” Evie’s soft laugh sounded embarrassed, accompanied by a shake of the head that sent more blue spilling into her features.  Mal had those promptly tucked out of the way too.  
  
“You will.  And all those stores you shopped in?  One day every last shelf will have your name on it…yeah, E, I was worried about coming to the city, I didn’t know how anyone would react to us.  But knowing you?  You’ll own this place in no time. You definitely have a future here.”  
  
Evie looked up at her, eyes wide and curious.  
  
“Don’t you?” she asked.  
  
Mal shrugged.  
  
“I mean, I guess.  Definitely didn’t have one on The Isle, no matter what harebrained scheme for Hers and Hers thrones mom came up with.  No place else left but Auradon, I don’t have a choice but to have a future here.”  
  
Evie picked right up on the total uncertainty in Mal’s voice.  
  
“…It’s okay, M.  You don’t have to figure it all out right this second.  That’s why they call it the future.”  
  
“Then why do  _you_  seem to have it all figured out?”  
  
“Because I’m a beautiful genius.”  
  
“And what does that make me?”  
  
“A beautiful genius who  _doesn’t_  have it all figured out.”  
  
Wonderful things.  Like laying a head on Evie’s shoulder and watching trees bounce by on the carriage ride back to school, clothes and books and a new set of pencils for Mal bundled in bags around their feet.  
  
“Thanks, E,” Mal said simply, not needing to explain.  
  
“You’re welcome,” Evie murmured.  
  
It was with a bittersweet goodbye that she bid farewell to the carriage and its driver, and then the pair were left to cross the lawn with their treasures of the day.  Chad and Doug strolled by in time to see the carriage trundling off.  
  
“Uh…what’s up with that?” Chad asked, pointing after the carriage as it rolled away.  
  
“Mal and I went out,” Evie said proudly.  
  
“Out where?”  
  
“Into the city!” Evie lifted her bags for emphasis.  "There’s  _so_  much to do there, things we didn’t have on The Isle; shopping, ice cream, cafés, the museums, Mal found her way into an art gallery…“  
  
Mal smiled listening to her best friend’s ecstatic rambling.  Chad frowned, and proceeded to make a variety of other faces as gears appeared to turn in his head.  The finger that had pointed at the carriage pointed at the girls now as he continued to puzzle out whatever he was puzzling out.  
  
"You and Mal went shopping, you went out for ice cream, saw the museums, art galleries…” he looked back and forth from Mal, to Evie, to Mal, to Evie again.  "So you two went on a da—"  
  
“Day of fun!” Doug loudly interrupted.  "Day of fun.“  
  
"Doug, dude, I was gonna say a da—”  
  
“Day of fun, yes.  Because it’s the weekend, and they’ve probably been real busy with school, and they could use a break.  Day of fun.”  
  
Doug pushed Chad away with a quick “Bye girls”, hindering the kid at every twist and turn as he tried to get his words out, and then they’d disappeared across the lawn.  
  
“…Charming Jr. really isn’t all there, is he?” Mal noted.  
  
“It’s a shame.”  
  
After Evie’s turn in the shower that evening, she came into the dorm all warm and cozy to find the room completely dark, with Mal having already turned the lights off to go to sleep.  She was disappointed for a moment, she had wanted to see if Mal was up for a movie, but the excitement of the day was weighing in on her and suddenly making her long for her own bed.  She didn’t set an alarm, for tomorrow was Sunday, and then crawled under the covers, bundling herself up.  She had only been comfortable for a minute or so when something startled her just the slightest.  
  
“…E?” Mal spoke just above a whisper.  Evie could’ve sworn the girl had been asleep.  
  
“Yeah Mal?” Evie rolled over onto her other side so she could face Mal’s direction.  
  
“…Come over here tonight?”  
  
Mal’s voice was small and shy, a trend unheard of in her that had Evie out of her own bed and into Mal’s in no time flat.  Mal was on her side too, and Evie came in close to curl against her back.  
  
“I’m here,” she murmured.  "I’m here, and I won’t let your mom get to you.“  
  
She felt all the tension drain from Mal’s body just then, and they both settled into the pillow.  
  
”…You don’t mind?“ Mal asked, voice muffled.  
  
"Falling asleep next to you?  I really don’t.”  
  
“…Evie?”  
  
“Yeah, Mal,” she said again.  
  
“Kind of funny that I have nightmares in Auradon the way I never did on The Isle.”  
  
“…No, not really.  Auradon is new, and new is always scary.  Not to mention that on top of being new, and scary, it had a dragon flying around ready to set everything on fire.  It’s a whole new world over here, Mal.  You can be scared, that’s okay.  But I’m here.”  
  
“You’re here,” Mal said for herself, getting a feel for the words.  
  
Evie draped an arm over Mal’s waist, feeling sleep beginning to come on.  
  
“We’ll face Auradon together, M.  Okay?”  
  
“…Okay.”  
  
“Goodnight Mal.”  
  
The first time they’d done this, when Evie brushed back her hair before sleep and told her she was proud of her, Mal had to fight off electricity under her skin where Evie had touched.  And this time, she did the same, fighting the sensation where it coursed from being pulled in and held around the waist.  Again, weird.  
  
“…Goodnight.”


	3. Chapter 3

The rain caught them on their way back from the Tourney field.  The sky had been gray and grumbly, yet still didn't quite look like a storm, so Mal and Evie had no reason to  _not_  be taking their time when the downpour hit.  Racing across campus, soaked within seconds like all the others who had been out with them, the two reached the school building and dripped their way into the dorm room.  Mal didn't know what it was about her best friend's bewildered expression that was drawing a laugh out of her, but laugh she did.

"Very funny, M.  I don't see _your_ hand-sewn designer top forming a small puddle at your feet," Evie pouted, pushing wet hair out of her eyes.

"No, you don't," Mal chuckled.

She dropped her backpack right there onto the middle of the floor and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving a cold and clammy Evie in her wake, clothes sticking uncomfortably to her.  Then, everything went dark for Evie as a towel was thrown around her head and shoulders and Mal started to dry her off.

"You pull off the sopping look so well," Mal chuckled, the sound muffled to Evie's ears.

"That isn't a look."

Mal spun her around, toweling the ends of Evie's hair.  She was admittedly a little mesmerized by the darkening of the color when it was drenched, so dark blue now it was closer to black.  Mal's gaze lazily shifted from Evie to the windows, misting over from the storm.

"Guess we're rained in," she noted.

"Good, now you won't have any excuses to avoid your homework."

"Do you know me, like, at all?  I will  _find_  an excuse."

Stubborn little droplets of rain dripped into Evie's face and eyes, making her blink crazily and jump from the cold sting until Mal dried her off there too.

"We should get changed," Mal said, carefully wiping Evie's cheeks.

Evie just nodded enthusiastically, agreeing wholeheartedly with the suggestion.

The temperature dropped with the rain as the girls changed into matching Auradon Prep hoodies, and after Mal had settled back against the headboard of her bed with the tv and her backpack, a still shivering Evie emerged from the bathroom, straightening out her hoodie.  Mal practically heard the chattering teeth from all the way across the room.

"E?" she said curiously, hand frozen mid-reach into her backpack.

"...Not quite warm yet," even Evie's laugh chattered, and she started to climb onto her bed before Mal's voice stopped her.

"Come here."

Evie didn't need any more convincing than that, shuffling across the room and crawling up beside Mal on her bed.  Mal's arm was around her in a second, and Evie turned herself to hug her like a stuffed animal.

"You're warm," Evie hummed, snuggling into Mal's chest.

"And you're  _really_ cold," Mal felt the chill coming off her best friend in waves.

"T-Tell me about it."

Mal kept her arm right there around Evie while her free hand took the remote and flipped channels, just turning on something for noise before skillfully retrieving her binder from the backpack pocket one-handed.

Evie's eyes fluttered shut as Mal started on her homework, lulled into sleepiness by the sound of the tv.  She shook herself out of it after a few minutes with a deep inhale, blinking her eyes before blearily focusing on the tv.

"Warm yet?" Mal asked.

"No," Evie murmured.

"Shall I fetch the royal blankets, your majesty?"

"Ha ha."

Instead, Evie slipped her hand into the front pocket of Mal's hoodie, angled her head so she could press her face into the warm skin of Mal's neck, and that's where she stayed for a good long while until a knocking at the door signaled the arrival of Carlos and Jay.  The door opened, and Carlos took one look at them after entering before suddenly stumbling back into the doorway.

"Oh, geez, sorry," he said quickly.  "We didn't know you were...uh..."

The girls stared blankly at him.

"Were what?" Evie questioned.

"...You know..." Carlos urged.

"We're watching tv," Mal said flatly, wondering just when exactly the kid had lost his mind.

Jay smacked him roughly on the arm.

"They're watching tv," he repeated, almost sternly.

The hard look Jay gave him was completely indiscernible to Mal and Evie.

"...Why have you two been acting so weird lately?" Mal asked.

Jay's and Carlos' faces were suddenly the pictures of faux innocence and terribly contained guilt.

"We haven't been acting weird," Jay assured her with a giant smile.

"No.  Nope.  We haven't."

Mal just frowned at them, tracing her fingertips up and down Evie's arm.

Carlos echoed Jay's "everything's fine" smile.

"We were just stopping by to...and you know, now we have, so...we'll leave you two alone.  Bye," he said.

He and Jay turned tail, ducking out of the dorm room and closing the door behind them.

"...They've been acting weird," Evie said firmly.

"Definitely."

 

* * *

 

 

That night, when Mal awoke at some unholy hour of the morning, it wasn't because of a nightmare.  It was because she was burning up, feeling like she was roasting in an oven underneath the sheets.  She sat bolt upright, hand on the covers just a second away from throwing them off and escaping the heat to go change out of her now-sweltering hoodie, but she stopped. Because the heat wasn't coming from her.  It was coming from Evie, laying beside her.

Each night they decided to share Mal's bed, they had to curl up close in the small sleeping space, which neither of them ever saw a need to complain about until Evie had suddenly turned into a living space heater.  Just to be extra sure, even though she was already plenty sure, Mal put the back of her hand to Evie's forehead.  On fire.

"Evie," Mal urgently said, not bothering to whisper.

She didn't want to shake her awake, which she thankfully didn't have to, because it seemed that Evie wasn't very fast asleep to begin with.  Her eyes struggled to open, but struggled right away at the sound of Mal's voice.

"...Mal, why is it still so cold?" she murmured.

"Cold??  Evie, you're burning up."

Evie weakly shook her head.

"I'm cold..."

"...Okay. Okay, E?  I'm gonna go get the nurse, alright?" Mal said quickly, her tone running suspiciously towards something that sounded like panic.

Evie responded with a cough, and Mal was out of bed.

"Just lay there, okay?  Evie, I will be  _right_ back."

She practically ran out of the room, into the dimly lit hallway.

A girl on a mission, she had already started in the direction of the on-campus staff rooms when her feet slowly dragged to a stop.  There was a moment of hesitation, just a moment, and then she was spinning around and moving purposely in the complete opposite direction—to Carlos and Jay's dorm.  Another moment of hesitation struck when she reached the door, where she contemplated knocking and letting the two meet her out in the hallway.  But she knew a pair of sleepy boys would have nowhere near the urgency she needed right now, so she skipped the knocking and barged right in.

"Jay!  Carlos!  Up!" she called out.

They, along with Dude, jumped right up from their beds, not at all aware of their surroundings.

"Wha—??  Huh??" Carlos sleepily blurted, holding Dude and looking all around through half-closed eyes.

Mal locked her focus on her friends, but even without seeing it she could still feel it; a much smaller pair of eyes behind some glass, watching her in the dark.

"Evie is sick," she said quickly.  "I need you guys to get down to our room and stay with her while I get the nurse, alright?"

Jay sleepily ran a hand through his hair, understanding even though he was barely awake himself.

"Yeah, Mal, sure thing," he murmured.

"Hurry up," Mal said a little tensely, rushing back out the way she came and ignoring her mother sitting in her cage.

Nothing seemed to be moving fast enough for her, she felt like she'd have to pick up the nurse and throw her into their dorm room herself.  Jay and Carlos had parked themselves on the edge of Evie's bed, since Evie was in Mal's, and Dude busily paced back and forth along the carpet like he too was worried.  Mal easily fell into step with the dog, pacing alongside him as the nurse went to Evie.

"What's wrong with her?" Mal demanded when the nurse had clearly made her deduction, thinking she hadn't spent nearly enough time checking over her best friend.

"Looks like the flu's going around," she said simply, taking a thermometer out of the little bag she'd brought with her.

Mal planted her hands on her hips.

"Okay?  So how do you get rid of it?"

"Rest, Mal.  Just rest," the nurse sat and waited until the thermometer gave a reading.  "I'll bring down some medicine to help her fever, but all she needs now is to sleep.  And I'll let Fairy Godmother know, Evie should be out of class for at least a week.

"A week??" Mal repeated, not keen on the idea of Evie suffering for a week straight.

"A week?" Evie herself squeaked, not keen on the idea of missing school for a week straight.

"At least," the nurse nodded, standing up.  "I'll be back."

The door closing behind her thudded loudly in Mal's ears.  Evie coughed weakly, and like a summons, it brought Mal right to her side.

"Evie, girl, we're sorry," Carlos said sympathetically.

"But hey, a week off of school," Jay joked.

Mal brushed Evie's hair back so it wouldn't stick to her forehead, keeping her eyes on her.

"...I've got her, you guys.  Thanks," Mal said.

The boys nodded, standing up from the bed.

"Hey, Evie, feel better," Jay sincerely urged her.

"Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow.  Get some rest, both of you."

Evie tried to manage a goodbye wave, but Mal took her hand and lowered it back down, and then the boys were gone.

"...Evie, look, we all know you're hot, but this is going a little too far," Mal took a page out of Jay's book and tried to joke.

She sat at the edge of the bed, clasping Evie's hand and absentmindedly gliding her thumb across the back of it.

"...I'm okay, M," Evie tiredly said, fighting to keep her eyes open so she could look at Mal.

"You're not, but thanks for lying."

Evie tried to pull her hand free, but Mal held tight.

"Mal, don't, you'll get sick too."

"I don't care."

Mal looked testily over her shoulder at the door, impatiently waiting on the nurse even though she'd left only moments ago. Evie shivered, her chills coming through in spite of her fever.

"Okay, forget this," Mal stood up and stormed into the bathroom, where Evie listened to the sound of running water.

When Mal came back into the room, Evie's eyes had fallen shut.  Mal spoke softly so as not to startle her.

"...E, I got you a cold washcloth.  For your fever."

Evie rolled over onto her back, and Mal laid the washcloth across her forehead.

"You just need to get some sleep now...and water!" Mal jumped.  "You need water!  Because you could get dehydrated  _so_  easily and—"

"Mal, you don't have to get all frantic," Evie mumbled.  "I'm not dying."

Mal dropped heavily onto the bed.

"...But you're sick.  You're sick, and you're miserable, and I can't stand to see you miserable."

Evie's hand crept across the covers and found Mal's once more.

"It's not so miserable when I have you here to take care of me."

"...I will always take care of you, Evie."

The nurse came back to find the two of them there just gazing at each other, Mal looking down intently, Evie gazing up sleepily, both with the smallest of smiles on their faces.  She gently cleared her throat.  The girls didn't even budge.

"Here, Evie.  This will help soothe your fever," she'd brought a cold bottle of water along with the medicine.

With a little help from Mal, Evie sat up just long enough to down the pills and then fell back onto her pillow.  With final, strict instructions to not worry about classes tomorrow and get plenty of sleep, the school nurse left them for the night.

"...You should sleep in my bed," Evie told her.  "Because you shouldn't stay too close to me."

Mal ran her fingers through Evie's blue with a smile.

"I think it's a little too late for that.  But you might get too hot with me next to you, so yeah, I'll move over here."

Mal clicked the lamp off and crossed the room to Evie's bed, hesitating before she pulled back the covers.

"...Will you be okay?" Mal asked.

"I'm only a couple feet away from you, M.  If I need you, you're right there."

Mal accepted that, a little anxiously, and climbed into the bed.  The smell of Evie's shampoo clung like heaven to her pillow, and with it lingering around Mal the space between them seemed even shorter, more bearable.

"I'm so sorry you got sick, E..."

Evie's head lolled to the side; she tried to get comfortable amidst the chills and aches.

"...Does it mean you get to pamper me?"

Mal laughed.

"You bet."

"Then I'm not sorry at all."

 

* * *

 

 

Ben found the VKs at breakfast that next morning.  Well, he found Carlos and Jay at breakfast.  He found Mal poking repeatedly at her oatmeal with a glassy gaze a hundred miles away.

"Hi guys," he cheerfully greeted, smile fading when he caught a closer look at Mal.  "...What's up?"

"Evie's got the flu," Carlos answered.

"...Oh, no.  I'm so sorry.  Stuff like that just hits out of nowhere and suddenly it's all over campus."

Mal kept poking at her breakfast.

"...Mal?" Ben prodded, leaning over her.

"...She shouldn't be left alone all day," Mal spoke as if to herself.  "She feels awful, she can barely move.  What if she needs something?"

"Mal, we'll all come to check on her in between class," Carlos assured her.  "And Fairy Godmother knows she's sick, I'm sure she'll keep an eye on her too."

Mal kept stabbing at her oatmeal.

"She's never been this sick before," was all she said.

Ben eyed her with sympathy and pity.

"...Mal, go ahead back to your dorm.  Spend a little more time with Evie and just make sure she's okay before you head to class," he told her.  "I'll stop by your first period, let them know you'll be a little late."

That got a response out of Mal, shaking her out of her daze.  She turned around in her seat, breakfast completely forgotten.

"Ben, really??"

"Really," Ben smiled easily.  "Go ahead."

Mal took off, not even pausing to shrug into her backpack and just grabbing it as she sped away.  Ben watched her leave, then turned his attention back to Jay and Carlos.  Slowly, he sat down across from them in the spot Mal had just left.

"So, um..." Ben softly cleared his throat.  "About Mal and Evie..."

Carlos paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth, his cheeks full of oatmeal.

"...Yeah?"

"I'm sure I'm just reading too much into it or something, but..." Ben chuckled.  "Do they seem different to you guys lately?  I feel like they've been acting differently, like whenever I see them now it seems as if they—"

"They are," Carlos said simply, reaching for the sugar on the table and sprinkling some more on his oatmeal.

"Are what?" Ben wondered.

"What you're thinking."

"...They are??"

"Yep," Jay nodded.

"And they don't—"

"Nope," Carlos shook his head.

"But you two—"

"We have eyes just like you do, buddy," Jay said.

Ben smiled.

"Aren't you going to help fill them in?" he asked.

"And ruin the fun?" Jay smirked.  "Not likely."

 

* * *

 

 

Mal had kept the dorm room dark when she left, in case Evie needed to fall asleep, and when she came back in it was only the white glow of the tv that lit up the room and Evie in bed.

"...Mal?" Evie's voice was hoarse from coughing, so much so that scratching out the one syllable of her best friend's name sent her into another fit of coughing.

"Hey..." Mal dropped her backpack by the door and hurried to the bedside.

"Mal, what are you doing here?"

"Being unable to stay away from you," Mal smiled and put her hand to Evie's forehead and cheeks.  "You don't seem as warm as you did last night, that's a good thing.  How do you feel?"

Evie sniffed, and coughed into the tissue in her hand.

"I'm alright..." she murmured.

Mal sat down on the edge of the bed, debating what soothing, comforting action she should use on Evie and deciding on brushing her fingers through her hair.  A favorite.

"You don't have to lie for me, E."

"Mal, you can't keep staying here, you're going to catch what I have."

"I don't care, Evie.  If I get sick then that just means I get to stay here with you. Ben said I could stop by and see how you're doing before class.  Need anything?"

She needed to stop shaking.  She needed to stop burning up and freezing at the same time.  She needed her whole body to stop aching with soreness, and she needed her coughs to stop wracking her chest and aggravating said soreness. She needed to stop feeling like her entire being was getting dragged down into the mud and left there to get swallowed up forever.

"Evie?"

"...I need you," Evie said quietly.

Mal would be lying if she claimed some part of her wasn't waiting on that exact reply.  She kicked her shoes off and slid under the covers, where Evie traded being propped up against her pillows for being propped up against Mal's chest. With the way Evie was weakly and comfortably slumped down in bed, they were in the perfect position for Mal to lean her head over and rest it on the soft bed of blue as their eyes lazily went to the tv.

"...School starts in just a little while, M."

"The king said I could be late.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say his word goes."

"...I don't know what I'd do without you, Mal."

Mal found Evie's hand under the covers.

"You don't have to find out."

Twenty minutes later, there was a soft knock at the door.  A pause.  Another soft knock.  A longer pause.  And then the door was cracking open, the heads of Ben, Carlos, and Jay peeking inside the room. What they saw was Mal and Evie together, leaning against one another, fast asleep.  Not even the knocking at the door had rustled them.

"...I'd better go see Mal's first period teacher," Ben whispered with a smile.  "Looks like she'll be a little later than we thought."


	4. Chapter 4

Oh, this was nice.  This was better than nice, this was amazing.  Incredible.   _Wonderful_.  
  
Mal didn’t think she truly knew the meaning of those words until she woke up with her best friend’s head on her chest.

Feeling rested and refreshed, she knew that this had been a nightmare-less sleep courtesy of Evie never leaving her side throughout the night.  It had been a month since Evie falling asleep beside her had become a daily routine, and not once since then had Mal been touched by nightmares of dragons or flames. Evie was curled close, her head tucked under Mal’s chin.  Mal could smell the shampoo that wafted from her hair from the shower hours before.  
  
She appeared to have just beaten the alarm clock, for mere minutes later it was going off, rousing Evie from her sleep with the most heartbreaking of drowsy murmurs. Mal could reach the clock from where she lay without disturbing Evie’s comfortable position, so she did so, turning off the alarm and plunging the dorm into silence once more.  
  
“…E.  Time to wake up,” Mal quietly said.  
  
At the sound of her voice Evie stretched and wriggled, bringing a smile to Mal’s lips.  
  
“…Is it really?” Evie eventually yawned.  
  
“Would I lie to you?”  
  
“You’d consider it.”  
  
Mal slid her fingers into Evie’s hair, lightly scratching at her scalp.  
  
“I would not…anymore.”  
  
Evie let out a very Mal-like grumble.  
  
“…Then it really is time to get up?” she asked, her voice dragged down with sleep and disappointment.  
  
“Yep.”  
  
Evie’s next stretch ended with her arms curling tightly around Mal, hugging her so very close.  
  
“But it’s so warm and comfortable right here,” she protested.  
  
Mal’s little laugh bounced Evie’s head a bit.  
  
“I’ll tell you what,” she began, reluctantly sitting up and coming loose from Evie’s hold. “I’ll meet you here again tonight, same time, same place.”  
  
The curtains were drawn over the windows, darkening the room even with morning light shining just outside the glass, but when Mal looked down at Evie she swore the girl’s sleepy smile shone like the sun.  
  
“Okay. Deal,” Evie gave one last long stretch, and then she too was sitting up to start the day.  
  
She threw back the covers shared between her and Mal and slowly got up to rise to her feet, but from down on the bed Mal was suddenly reaching across to grab Evie’s hand, stopping her from walking off.  
  
“Thanks for chasing away my nightmares again,” Mal said, a smile tugging at one corner of her mouth.  
  
“Always. Like you said, same time, same place.”  
  
Mal nodded and let her go, mind suddenly flooded with thoughts of the peace that was waking up next to Evie every morning, falling asleep next to her every night.  
  
In the dining hall they were greeted with fluffy stacks of chocolate chip pancakes, which were honestly a solid competitor with strawberry for Mal’s favorite kind of pancake. Jane and Audrey were there at the VKs’ usual table, sitting with the boys for whatever reason when Evie and Mal walked up.  
  
“Morning,” Jane said sweetly as they sat down.  
  
Instead of two trays between them, there was only one, carried by Evie and piled extra high with pancakes. With two forks they shared breakfast, but even so Mal kept side-eyeing her way into bites from Evie’s fork when she noticed that Evie’s bites kept getting all the  _good_  chocolate chips.  
  
“Mal, I got us the one plate today because you always eat off of mine, and now you’re eating off my fork, too?” Evie chided.  
  
“Everything’s better when it’s yours,” Mal said.  
  
“Even you?”  
  
“Even me.”  
  
Audrey’s eyes went huge and wide, and she whipped her head around to Jane with an expression that was very much a silent “what the hell??” Jane just closed her eyes and shook her head, her own silent expression of “don’t mention it”. The boys didn’t react in the slightest, taking Mal and Evie in stride the way they’d grown accustomed to over the past month. The two of them were of course finished eating before everyone else, the way they tended to inhale their food, but they lingered at the lunch table in absolutely no rush. Evie, on the other hand was standing up from her seat as soon as she and Mal were done.  
  
“Walk me to class, M?” she slipped her arm through her purse strap and picked up the tray.  
  
“Of course.”  
  
Mal stood up as well and slung her bag over her shoulder, wordlessly taking the empty tray from Evie and carrying it for her. Evie gave her a gracious smile, then waved at their friends.  
  
“We’ll see you guys later!” she said.  
  
And with that they walked away, leaving the two VKs alone with the two AKs. When they had gone, Audrey let her fork drop loudly onto her tray as if in some form of protest.  
  
“Are Mal and Evie  _dating_??” she blurted.  
  
Three heads simply nodded, nonplussed.  
  
“Excuse me, what?” Audrey continued, voice a bit shriller than usual. “How did I not know about this??”  
  
“Because they don’t even know about it,” Jay jerked his head in the direction the two had walked off in.  
  
“And we aren’t telling them,” Carlos added.  
  
“Mom always says you can’t interfere with the path to romance,” Jane agreed.  
  
“And how long has this been going on?” Audrey questioned in amazement.  
  
Jay put on his thinking face.  
  
“Little over a month,” he said.  
  
“They’re feeding each other. Mal is carrying her things. Evie said Mal was hers. And they…what? Seriously just think they’re only friends?”  
  
“They seriously do,” Jane sighed.  
  
“…Unbelievable.”

* * *

Same time, same place didn’t go quite as according to plan as they expected it to that night.   
  
Mal didn’t see Evie after the end of classes, in fact, she didn’t see her for the rest of the afternoon and any of the evening. With Evie’s schedule, Mal didn’t think much of it, until the sun had well since set and Auradon settled into darkness. She had just sent off a worried “Where are you??” text when minutes later Evie came into the dorm.  
  
Mal was already in her pajama pants and a baggy t-shirt, nestled under the covers with a book as she awaited Evie nestling in beside her.  
  
“…M, slight change of plans,” Evie quietly began, dropping her purse onto her bed.  
  
Mal frowned.  
  
“What do you mean?”   
  
Evie went over to Mal’s bedside, standing over her and giving in to the urge to wring her hands.  
  
“Ben caught me after school, I was with him all afternoon. He’s wanting to follow through on his plans to bring over more kids from The Isle, and he thinks I should be like…Isle ambassador, I guess?” she explained, somewhat timidly. “He wants me to sit in on a council meeting tonight.”  
  
“Okay?” Mal didn’t get it. “I mean, that’s  _amazing_  Evie, but change of plans?”  
  
“It’s already almost nine, and I don’t know how long this meeting will last.”  
  
Now Mal got it, eyes widening slightly.  
  
“…Okay, so I’ll just stay up and wait for you.”  
  
“Mal, we have school tomorrow, you can’t stay up late waiting for me.”  
  
Mal snapped her book closed and all but threw it aside.  
  
“Evie, no, I can’t sleep without you!!” Mal made a startlingly fast leap to something akin to panic, grabbing her best friend’s hands and clutching so tightly it actually hurt Evie a little.  
  
“Mal—”  
  
“My mother will be there. She’ll be so angry that I’ve hidden from her all this time that she’ll…Evie, she’ll kill me.”  
  
With some effort, Evie pulled a hand free, smoothing some loose strands of Mal’s hair back before cupping her hand to her cheek.  
  
“Mal, she won’t. It’s only a dream. She might not even come at all, you don’t know for sure that you’ll have a nightmare.”  
  
“I will!” Mal argued. “She’s waiting for me, Evie. I felt it running into the boys’ room to wake them up when you were sick; she was watching me in there. She’s just waiting for her chance, and when she finally takes it…E, I’ll stay up all night if I have to, but  _please_ don’t make me sleep without you!”  
  
Evie bit her lip, not knowing at all what to do.  
  
Until suddenly, she did.  
  
Silently, she reached both hands around the back of her neck and unfastened her ruby heart necklace, taking it off and holding each end of the golden chain between her fingertips.  
  
“You won’t have to,” she said.  
  
Mal sat still, lips parted to take in a breath as Evie’s necklace was in turn fastened around her own neck, the heart-and-crown charm coming to rest just a little below her own heart.  
  
“…Evie,” Mal breathed, looking down at it and the way it glittered in the lamplight. “This is your…E, I can’t wear this.”  
  
Her mouth said it, but her hand closed around the charm like she was never going to let it go.  
  
“Yes you can,” Evie sat down on the edge of Mal’s bed, turning to face her. “I may be at a council meeting tonight, but part of me is still here. The part you need the most.”  
  
She moved Mal’s hand aside to tap a blue fingernail to the red heart.  
  
“The part you’ve always had,” Evie added. “You’ll be okay, Mal. And before you know it you’ll be awake again, and I’ll be here, asking what kind of non-dragon mischief your dream self got into this time.”  
  
Mal laughed, looking down at the covers.  
  
“It’ll only be a couple hours, Mal. If that.”  
  
“I’ll still miss you.”  
  
“I’ll miss you too.”  
  
Mal looked thoughtful for a moment, and then she was slipping her black teardrop thumb ring off her finger and taking Evie’s hand.  
  
“So I’ll be there with you too at that council meeting,” she said, sliding the ring on Evie’s thumb. It was a perfect fit.  
  
“…Wish me luck?” Evie’s smile was nervous.  
  
Mal put her arms around her in a hug, burying her face in Evie’s hair and taking in the scent of shampoo that seemed to always linger no matter how many hours ago Evie had washed her hair.  
  
“Good luck,” she said. “Wake me up and tell me all about it.”  
  
Evie laughed, the musical sound close to Mal’s ears.  
  
“I’ll tell you all about it, but after you’ve had a decent night’s rest.”  
  
“Come back soon?” Mal hugged her a little tighter.  
  
“As soon as I can, M. You know it.”

* * *

The cathedral.  
  
The coronation.  
  
Carlos, Evie, and Jay behind her.  
  
Maleficent in front.  
  
Mal was there again, there all over again.  
  
Impossibly, the dragon seemed to be twice as large as it ever was before, the horned head just grazing the towering cathedral ceiling and wings appearing to span the room’s entire width. Mal didn’t understand how her mother even had room to fly, but fly she did, diving right for the VKs in a blur of claws, teeth, and fire orange eyes. She was rooted in place, entire body frozen as a gaping black maw of knives and a serpentine tongue came straight for her.  
  
“Mal!! Come on!!”   
  
Evie’s voice was there, and Evie’s hands were frantically pulling her back, tugging her into a run. And suddenly, it wasn’t Mal and the VKs anymore.   
  
Suddenly, it was just her and Evie.  
  
Maleficent tried to right herself as the girls ran away but missed her mark, crashing into the stone floor with a violent quake that shook the entire building and sent beams of stony rock and shards of stained glass raining down. They just narrowly avoided being crushed as they took cover behind a pillar. They both breathed heavily from sprinting for their life, hair coming loose from their coronation buns. But all alone in the empty cathedral, they couldn’t hide for long.  
  
Maleficent’s head snaked around the pillar with a roar, a massive head of those sharpened, yellowed teeth and fire orange eyes suddenly blazing emerald green. And then there were flickers and flares of orange once more—but they weren’t coming from the creature’s eyes.  
  
“Mal, look out!!”  
  
Evie reacted faster than Maleficent, shoving Mal out of the way and sending her landing roughly on the floor of the aisle just as Mal felt a searing plume of crackling heat go up behind her, and then the cathedral was alight with a scream.  
  
“EVIE!!”   
  
Mal didn’t cry out within the nightmare, but in the real world, shooting up in bed with sweat sticking her hair to her forehead and the back of her neck. Disoriented, Mal looked across the room and saw Evie’s bed empty, and—disoriented—screamed again.  
  
“EVIE!!” she whipped the covers off and leapt from her bed, but her legs literally shook so terribly that she couldn’t hold herself up just then, collapsing onto the carpet and feeling the shivers reverberate up through her whole body.   
  
Like a switch being flipped, she remembered all at once; remembered the council meeting, Evie leaving, and even the necklace hanging under her heart, which felt suspiciously hot to the touch.    
  
Sitting on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest was how Evie found her when she returned ten minutes later, and Mal, with her tear-streaked face, didn’t have to say a word. Evie didn’t even leave Mal’s side to go change into her pajamas, she just took off her heels, helped Mal into her bed, and then laid down beside her, all the while making gentle utterances of “I’m here” and “I’m alright” and “We’re okay”. Mal didn’t feel anything remotely close to okay until she rolled over to lay her head on Evie’s chest and heard the heartbeat in her ear, which was somewhere in between steady and picking up frightened speed at Evie seeing her best friend in such a state. Big Bad Mal, reduced to a crying, quivering mess in Evie’s arms until her best friend’s hold slowly became Auradon’s own magic barrier, blocking out the terror and the black cloud over Mal’s head.  
  
Evie’s heartbeat fell closer to calm on the spectrum when Mal’s did, when Mal’s quivering began to stop and her wide, bloodshot eyes began to get heavy. It was hard to tell, with the daze of sleep and the swirl of emotions fogging her mind, but as Mal finally drifted off and her body finally calmed, as reality and consciousness fell away around her…she could’ve sworn she felt a warm kiss being pressed to the top of her head, the lingering touch of lips somewhere in her mussed-up hair.  
  
Must have just been her imagination.

* * *

Mal awoke with her hand curled tightly around the collar of Evie’s shirt, which is how she must have stayed all night, because when her eyes blinked open and she lifted her head, she saw that Evie never got the chance to sneak out of bed and get comfortable in pajamas. Mal groaned—in sleepiness, in embarrassment that she’d made Evie sleep in her clothes all night, and in shame and disgust at herself for reacting the way she did to that stupid nightmare. With another all-encompassing groan she let her head fall back onto Evie’s chest, which jolted Evie awake and filled Mal with even more shame.  
  
“Oh, E…I’m sorry.”  
  
But Evie didn’t need apologies, she just yawned, and let her fingers find their way into Mal’s hair.  
  
“Good morning,” she murmured. “…Feel better?”  
  
“I feel stupid,” Mal grumbled.  
  
“…M, no. You—”  
  
But Mal wasn’t in the mood to be comforted, she didn’t want to be told it was alright. She just wanted to wallow in her own berating, so she promptly changed the subject.   
  
“Hey, Evie…” she propped herself up on one elbow, leaning over Evie slightly. “After you came back last night, before I fell asleep, did you…uh…”  
  
“Did I what?”  
  
“…Nothing. I guess I was just really exhausted, and I thought that…but it was nothing.”  
  
Evie frowned.  
  
Mal sat up, stretching her arms above her head and feeling the pull go all the way down her back. The next thing she felt was the jostling of the bed as Evie too sat herself up, then Evie’s arms snaking around her waist, and Evie’s chin nestling on her shoulder.   
  
“…I’m so sorry I left you alone.”  
  
Evie’s voice was low, a raspy morning whisper. It sent a tingle down Mal’s back much like her stretch had.  
  
“E, you had things to do. It’s not your fault I have nightmares, and it’s not your job to plan your schedule around sleeping with—uh, sleeping  _next_ to me.”  
  
“Do you at least want to talk about what happened in your nightmare?”  
  
Mal actually shuddered as she called to mind the blazing heat of dragon fire just behind her. Her best friend’s screams.  
  
The way it felt like her very heart had been torn from her chest in the split second she realized Evie was gone.  
  
“…No. I really don’t,” Mal answered.  
  
Evie’s fingers were tracing light, ticklish patterns around Mal’s stomach.  
  
“…Okay,” Evie wouldn’t push Mal any further if she didn’t want to be pushed. “Well, I’m going to take a shower before we head down to breakfast.”  
  
She got out of bed and padded across the carpet to the bathroom, flicking on the lights and getting the door halfway shut before Mal’s voice stopped her.  
  
“I’m sorry I made you sleep in your clothes,” she quickly called out.  
  
Evie smiled, her hand resting on the doorframe.  
  
“…I didn’t even notice.”  
  
Muffled sounds of running water filled the air as Mal pondered over the tingling feeling sitting heavily in the pit of her stomach where Evie’s hands had just been. The same tingling feeling she’d had the first night Evie slept next to her and brushed some hair out of her face, and again one night when Evie curled beside her with an arm around her waist. Thankfully, the water shut off before she could get a chance to ponder over the strange heartwrenching feelings from the aftermath of her nightmare, and when a dressed Evie opened the door to let the steam out, Mal got up and wandered over.  
  
“E, how was the council meeting?” she asked, leaning against the doorframe and watching Evie start on her makeup.  
  
“Strange. I just sat and listened to the court and the royals talk about us and The Isle.”  
  
“You didn’t say anything?”  
  
“I’m not a member of the court. Technically, I  _can’t_ say anything.”  
  
“So…Ben wants to eventually make you a member of the court? Is that why he had you sit in?” Mal asked.  
  
“I’m not sure,” Evie put on her blue eyeliner. “He said he’d talk to me more about it later. But if being a member of the court means more of these late nights—”  
  
“Evie, don’t worry about me,” Mal shook her head, smiling in spite of her words because of Evie’s concern.  
  
“How can I not?” Evie returned the smile as Mal came in to stand behind her.  
  
“It’s easy. You know that thing where you worry? Just don’t do it.”  
  
“It doesn’t work like that,” Evie hummed, Mal’s fingers combing through her hair.  
  
Mal watched their reflections in the mirror.  
  
“You look beautiful,” she said.  
  
“I haven’t even finished my makeup yet,” Evie giggled.  
  
“So?”  
  
“Auradon’s turned you into quite the sweet-talker,” Evie couldn’t stop herself from leaning her head back into Mal’s touch.  
  
“Don’t read too much into it, it’s just a survival instinct I picked up.”  
  
“How is sweet-talking me a survival instinct?”  
  
“It gets me half your breakfast every morning.”  
  
“Oh, is  _that_  how you do it?”   
  
Mal imagined she’d be happy to give a demonstration as they arrived in the dining hall to the same crowd as yesterday morning, but this time with the addition of Lonnie.  
  
“Morning, you guys,” Evie greeted.  
  
The table chorused a greeting back to them.  
  
“…Mal, are you wearing Evie’s necklace?” Lonnie questioned.  
  
Her words drew up the eyes of Audrey, Jane, Carlos, and Jay as well. Mal looked confused for a second, until she glanced down at herself and her hand automatically closed around the charm.  
  
“Oh, yeah. I forgot.”  
  
Mal sat down at the table and reached around to unfasten the chain, but Evie stopped her.  
  
“You can hang on to it for a little while,” she said.  
  
“E, no, this is your special necklace.”  
  
“For someone special,” Evie nodded. “So you can wear it.”  
  
“Someone special, hm?” Audrey repeated.  
  
Jane elbowed her.  
  
Mal and Evie didn’t even notice the exchange.  
  
“Wait, are you trying to sweet-talk your way into  _my_  breakfast??” Mal demanded.  
  
“M, I would never,” Evie laughed.  
  
Mal slid her plate of crepes just a little bit closer to her regardless.  
  
“You can mooch off her food but she can’t mooch off yours?” Carlos teased.  
  
“See? Carlos gets it,” Mal told Evie.  
  
When she walked Evie to class after breakfast, they took the scenic route across the front lawn, with green grass and a bright sun the order of the day.  
  
“…E? Do you want to be part of the royal court?” Mal asked as they walked. “When Ben was all love-spelled he talked about me becoming a lady of the court, and…it sounds like the  _last_ thing for any of us Isle kids.”  
  
Evie didn’t even hesitate.  
  
“But that’s exactly it, Mal. We’re ‘Isle kids’. Ben and the others are 'Auradon kids’. It shouldn’t be like that, it should just be…'kids’. There’s too many of us left on The Isle, and too many of us still thinking in terms of 'them’ and 'us’.”  
  
“Kinda hard not to,” Mal muttered. “But all the rules, the etiquette, the protocols…Evie, I know the whole royalty thing is in your blood, but don’t you think this’ll be too much?”  
  
“It’s really not about me. It’s about all the kids like us still stuck on The Isle who deserve a chance at a real life.”  
  
Mal stopped walking, taking both of Evie’s hands and turning her so they were face to face.  
  
“Did I mention that you’re amazing?” Mal asked.  
  
“Not today,” Evie playfully said.  
  
“Then you’re amazing. You’re my best friend, Evie, with the biggest heart I’ve ever seen. No matter what Ben and the court decide to do, I know that all the kids on The Isle will have you to thank someday for their second chances.”  
  
Mal glided her thumb across her ring on Evie’s finger.  
  
“The way you gave  _me_  a second chance,” she went on.  
  
“…How could I not give you a second chance?” Evie quietly uttered. “Mal, you’re my best friend too, and I think  _you_  have the biggest heart I’ve ever seen. And in all the craziness of coming to Auradon and all the craziness that might still lie ahead, my one lifeline has been knowing that you’ll always be there for me.”  
  
Mal didn’t know when she had started to lean in closer to Evie, or when she squeezed her hands just a little tighter as her eyes traced the shape of Evie’s lips. She didn’t know when the strange, tingling sensation that had been plaguing her as of late started bubbling up in the pit of her stomach.  
  
“Always,” she agreed with a nod, letting go, stepping away, and continuing on their walk to class.  
  
Feeling like she had just missed her chance for something.  
  
Like something big had been hanging in the air between them just then.  
  
But Mal couldn’t let herself dwell on it, especially not when Evie settled into her arms that evening to make up for the night before by curling up with her best friend and the tv. They laid on their sides, heads tilted and watching the screen at an awkward angle but not caring in the slightest just as long as they were together.  
  
“Mal?” Evie started, deciding during a slow-paced lull in the movie that they had been comfortably quiet long enough.  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“What about now?”  
  
Mal frowned to herself.  
  
“What about now what?” she wondered.  
  
“…Your nightmare. Will you tell me about it?”  
  
Mal felt Evie go still in her arms, like she was holding her breath in anticipation of an answer.  
  
“…Why do you want to know?” she answered the question with another question.  
  
“Because your nightmares mean something, and if I can figure out what’s going on in your head, maybe I can help you fight off these bad dreams for good.”   
  
“Or we could just keep falling asleep beside each other,” Mal murmured against Evie’s shoulder. “That’s not a bad plan.”  
  
Evie’s little laugh rumbled against Mal.  
  
“No, it’s not. But still…M, you mean everything to me. And everytime I have to see you wake up yelling, or crying, or…”  
  
Evie couldn’t even finish, couldn’t even let herself hold the mental image of Mal doing all those things.  
  
And Mal didn’t mean to, but she was suddenly holding Evie tighter, like the girl might float away forever if she didn’t keep her close just then.  
  
“You mean everything to me too, E, and…last night…I dreamt that I lost you.”  
  
Mal nestled her face in Evie’s hair, hiding there like the nightmare was lurking above just waiting for the chance to find her and torment her again.  
  
“…Lost me how? What do you mean?”  
  
“I mean we were at Ben’s coronation again, my mother was a dragon, and instead of killing me like I was sure she would, she killed you,” Mal blurted in a muffled rush.  
  
“Oh, Mal…” Evie turned over in Mal’s arms, now lying face to face with her. “Hey. You will never lose me.”  
  
“You can’t say that so easily.”  
  
“Yes I can. This isn’t The Isle. This is Auradon. Bad things don’t happen in Auradon, we’re safe here.”  
  
“Except for when there are dragons at coronations.”  
  
“That was a one-time thing,” Evie shook her head. “Mal, I mean it. I promise. Nothing will ever take me away from you.”  
  
She softly brushed their noses together, eliciting a giggle from Mal.  
  
“You mean we’ll do things the Auradon way and grow old together?” Mal asked.  
  
Evie nodded.  
  
“Just like a happily ever after. From Auradon Prep, to Auradon University, to Auradon Retirement Home,” she joked. “And everything in between. It will always be you and me. So you can rest easy.”  
  
Mal couldn’t describe, even to herself, what it was like to lay there and look deep into Evie’s eyes. The molten brown staring back at her was familiar and somehow unfamiliar all at once, almost like that of a stranger. But the girl snuggled in her arms was no stranger, she was a best friend, Mal’s first and only. So what was with this feeling of trepidation that came when Mal couldn’t stop herself from nuzzling their noses together again? When the soft breath of Evie’s laugh ghosted over her? What was with her heart squeezing in her chest like Evie was indeed a stranger who had moved just a little too close?  
  
“I want to make it up to you, Mal,” Evie said then.  
  
Mal blinked, like she was coming out of a trance.  
  
“Make what up to me?” she wondered.  
  
“Leaving you alone last night.”  
  
“E, I told you, you don’t have to—”  
  
“But you know me, and you know I’m going to do it anyway, so you might as well stop arguing. You and me, anything and anywhere you want,” Evie said.  
  
Her eyes sparkled, Mal saw the crystal clear shine with her green still riveted with Evie’s brown. Mal swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat, smiled around the uncomfortable tightness in her chest.  
  
“…Surprise me.”

* * *

Mal’s life had been so simple until she found herself knocking on Ben’s office door a few days later. His friendly and easy “Come in!” did little to still her thudding heart, but come in she did, finding the king at his desk with a pen in hand.  
  
“…Mal! Hi!” he greeted her, looking up at the door when he heard it open.  
  
“…Hey,” she greeted back.  
  
“Come on over, have a seat,” Ben stood up to drag a comfortable chair over to the front of his desk, and after dropping her bag to the floor, Mal did indeed have a seat.  
  
She didn’t start any kind of a conversation, just sat there sort of staring into space and listening to the steady clock ticks, so Ben took it upon himself to speak.  
  
“How was class today?” he wondered.  
  
Mal couldn’t tell him. Mal hadn’t paid a single bit of attention in any of her classes that day. Like that very moment, a million thoughts had raced through her head all day long, a cacophony of deafening words and noise that made it impossible for her to hold any shred of focus.  
  
“Mal?”  
  
Even now.  
  
“…Ben. I have something that I…it’s not easy for me to talk about, but I don’t know who else to turn to.”  
  
Ben’s eyes widened with concern, having never seen Mal like this before. He put his pen aside, sat down in his chair to give the girl his full attention.  
  
“Of course, Mal, anything,” he said with a firm nod.  
  
He watched her visibly struggle for words, watched her eyes dart all around, her expression twist with anxiety and fear.  
  
“…Take your time,” he gently said, sitting back just a bit so as not to seem like he was waiting impatiently or rushing her.  
  
For a moment Mal didn’t think she’d ever gather her thoughts, but with all the uncertainty clouding her head, the one thing she was sure of was that she’d made the right choice in going to Ben, Ben who sat quietly and let her think with that easygoing smile on his face that seemed to be his natural expression.  
  
“…You remember at the Enchanted Lake, when you were still spelled? You kept saying that you loved me, and I told you…I didn’t know what love felt like.”  
  
Ben nodded.  
  
“I remember.”  
  
Mal had been wringing her hands, but now stopped, giving Ben a chance to see that they were shaking slightly.  
  
“I remember, Mal,” he said again. “Why? What’s this about?”  
  
Mal’s heart felt like it would beat out of her chest, and the deep breaths she took did nothing to settle her, but she kept taking them anyway like she was struggling mightily for air.  
  
“…I think I’m in love,” she finally said.  
  
Ben let her take a minute to sit as the weight of her words hung in the air, wisely let her hear them repeat themselves over in her ears and gave her a chance to come to terms with what she’d just said. Mal thought saying it out loud would be a weight off her chest, that terrible weight that had been sitting squarely on her all day, but it was no such thing.  
  
“I think I’m in love, Ben,” she said it again, not knowing where in the world she summoned up the courage to speak the words twice.  
  
Ben kept his warm and easygoing smile, plastering it front and center in the hopes that it would calm and anchor Mal.  
  
“With Evie,” he said.  
  
Mal couldn’t endure this complicated acrobatic routine her heart was going through.  
  
“What??” she flat-out yelled. “How did you—??”  
  
“Not everyone knows what love feels like, Mal. But everyone knows what it looks like. It looks like you and Evie never leaving each other’s side from the very moment you came to Auradon. And it looks like Evie with a fever and you fast asleep next to her not caring if you get sick too…as a matter of fact, love looks an awful lot like Evie’s necklace hanging around your neck right this very second.”  
  
Mal’s fingers reflexively curled around the heart-and-crown the way they always seemed to do when someone called her attention to it. It never felt cold under her touch, like a gemstone should. To her, it always felt warm.  
  
“…What do I do, Ben?” she pleaded.  
  
“Simple. Understand that Evie loves you too.”  
  
And then Mal’s heart stopped entirely.  
  
“…She what?” the girl spoke in even less than a whisper.  
  
Ben’s smile shone.  
  
“You and Evie belong together, Mal. You  _are_ together. You just didn’t realize it, that’s all. Until now.”  
  
Mal couldn’t seem to shake her daze.  
  
“…Evie loves me?”  
  
“Well, she’s still wearing that ring of yours, isn’t she?” Ben chuckled. “Yes, Evie loves you. In so many different ways that not even she can tell them apart.”  
  
“…I’ve been wanting to kiss her for the past three days now,” Mal’s mouth utterly betrayed her and spoke words that she hadn’t even made the conscious decision to say out loud.  
  
“That’s a good way to tell her. It doesn’t take a word.”  
  
“But she’s my best friend. I can’t just…” Mal trailed off, not even sure herself of what her point was.  
  
“Someone you love should always be a best friend, first and foremost. So you’re already there,” Ben said. “Mal, just tell her. Let her know. You’ve got the rare luxury of having nothing to lose. Believe me, the two of you are meant for each other. All you have to do is tell her.”  
  
Mal was having such trouble with words as she sat and processed it all, so much so that all she could do just then was hold her arms out in front of her. Ben understood, rising from his chair as Mal did and moving around his desk to hug her.  
  
“…Thank you, Ben,” Mal fiercely said, meaning the words sincerely as she hugged him tight.  
  
“You’re welcome, Mal. Anytime. You’ll be fine, I promise. Everything will turn out okay…now go on and kiss the girl.”

* * *

“Are you peeking?” Evie asked.  
  
“How can I be peeking? Your hands are covering my eyes.”  
  
“Just checking.”  
  
It had been a slow evening walk through the forest, made slower when the sun had set and the girls had to pick their way through the brush by the light of Evie’s lantern, made  _even slower_  when Evie insisted that Mal close her eyes and be led by the hand. But wherever they were now, they came to a stop, and Mal had heard the creak of the lantern being set down on the ground before she had felt hands going over her eyes.  
  
“Are you ready?” Evie’s soft voice was in her ear.  
  
For the surprise? No.  
  
In general? …Also no.  
  
“Yeah,” Mal nodded.  
  
Then Evie let her go, and Mal opened her eyes. She was greeted with a little rowboat sitting on the shore of a lake, not the Enchanted Lake, but a lake bouncing back glittering moonlight in a sight that was enchanting nonetheless. Evie looked to Mal, waiting for her to say something, but when her best friend did not, Evie spoke her own mind instead.  
  
“…I wanted to show you that Auradon isn’t the Isle of the Lost. That it’s safe, and beautiful, and that as long as you and I are here, we have nothing to be afraid of.”  
  
_Almost nothing…_  Mal thought to herself.  
  
“…Only you would think of something like this, E.”  
  
Evie grinned, glad to have the approval.  
  
“Come on,” she said, taking Mal’s hand again and walking her down to the edge of the lake.  
  
Evie hooked the lantern onto the tall front of the rowboat, and then it was Mal who was helping her inside.  
  
“Let me row,” Mal said.  
  
Evie settled in, looking up at her moon-and-lantern lit face.  
  
“Are you sure?” she asked, thinking of Mal and her lack of affinity for all things water.  
  
“I’m sure.”  
  
Wow, Mal didn’t think she’d say those words at all that day.  
  
But say them she did, and then she carefully climbed into the boat, taking her seat in between the oars.  
  
Crickets, and the rippling of otherwise still waters as the oars passed through, and the occasional hoot from an owl or chirrup of a nightbird were the only sounds as Mal rowed them all the way out to the center of the lake, drifting under the yellow light of the moon and staying afloat right there. Both now and as she rowed Mal kept catching glimpses of light out of the corner of her eyes, but only now that they were still could she see that it wasn’t the moon or the stars reflecting off the glassy water, but curious fireflies, venturing out from the trees to see what was going on out on the lake. It was beautiful indeed, but oh, how Mal could barely take her eyes off of Evie long enough to truly admire it.  
  
“…This is my official apology for leaving you that night,” Evie broke the silence. “…What do you think?”  
  
“…Apology accepted,” Mal said. “But I told you, you didn’t even need to apologize in the first place.”  
  
“And I told  _you_ —”  
  
“I know, I know,” Mal laughed. “You were going to do it anyway. I know you, Evie. I know what happens when you set your mind to something. It’s one…one of my favorite things about you.”  
  
Mal didn’t know what to think about how easily the phrase “one of the things I love about you” almost slipped out. And she didn’t know what to think about feeling like they were entirely too far apart when the reality was that only two or three feet separated them.  
  
“Who would’ve thought that you’d come to have such a way with words,” Evie laughed quietly. “…Mal, with the two of us out here, alone…I have something I want to talk to you about.”  
  
Mal was grateful for the night hiding the red that flushed to her cheeks.  
  
“…I actually have something I want to talk to you about too.”  
  
“Can I go first?”  
  
Mal nodded, letting go of the oars and leaning forward.  
  
“Of course, E.”  
  
Evie’s composure faltered just then, and her smile twisted with nerves.  
  
“I’m actually…I’m really not sure how to say this, to be honest,” she admitted.  
  
Mal had an idea of where this was going, and the warm flush in her cheeks suddenly bloomed to life in the center of her chest as her heart skipped a beat before kickstarting itself into a gallop.  
  
“Evie, it’s me. It’s Mal. You can tell me anything.”  
  
“…I know.”  
  
“Just…pretend we’re back in our room. Pretend it’s one of those moments when we’re in each other’s arms and just on the edge of sleep, where we have no filters and we’ll say any little thing that pops into our heads without caring what the other one thinks.”  
  
Evie giggled, and watched a firefly pass between them.  
  
“That does make it easier. Only…I do care what you think about this, Mal. It actually matters  _a lot_.”  
  
“So tell me.”  
  
Mal found her eyes drawn to Evie’s lips as she watched her take in a steadying breath.  
  
“Well, Mal, you see…once, there was a princess.”  
  
“Was the princess you?”   
  
Evie nodded once, before continuing.  
  
“And…she fell in love,” the last word was pure whisper, plain and simple.  
  
Mal’s breath hitched. She hoped Evie didn’t hear.  
  
“…Was it hard to do?” she asked her best friend.  
  
“…Yes and no,” Evie said, looking down at her hands. “The falling wasn’t hard, it happened all on its own. The hard part was realizing  _who_  I’d…I mean, who  _she’d_  fallen for.”  
  
Mal glanced down and saw Evie absentmindedly twisting her ring around her finger.  
  
“Was it someone cool and tough? Kind of scrappy and small?” Mal laughed nervously, suddenly afraid of hearing the answer on the one in a million chance that she may have misread this entire conversation.  
  
“…There’s nobody like her, anywhere at all.”  
  
_Her._  
  
“…So my best friend’s in love,” Mal dropped the pronoun game, not knowing why her smile was so shaky. “Tell me more about her.”  
  
“There’s just too much to say. I look at her, and it’s like…I don’t need to see anymore of Auradon, because I know there’s nothing in it more beautiful than her. She knows all about my dreams, and my passions, and if I ever doubt myself, she’s right there telling me I can do it all and then some. But she has her own doubts too, so I hug her, and hold her, and…she’s never told me with words, but it feels like when she’s in my arms, or I’m in hers…we’re both home. No matter where we happen to be. Whether it’s falling asleep in our dorm…or sitting out on a moonlit lake…”  
  
A concert of crickets settled between them, filling the silence that drifted over the two like a silken veil.  
  
“…I love you, Mal.”  
  
Then the crickets seemed to stop, as if they had heard and silenced themselves with a collective gasp.  
  
And then there was Mal, again finding herself leaning in closer to Evie, taking her hands and squeezing them tight, her eyes tracing the shape of Evie’s lips. The strange, tingling sensation bubbling up in the pit of her stomach.  
  
But something different this time. Gently pulling the girl in even closer, slowly brushing her nose against Evie’s once, twice, three times, watching Evie’s eyes fall closed…  
  
…And when Mal kissed her, and her heart again stopped, she really couldn’t find it in herself to mind. And when she cupped a hand to Evie’s cheek and kissed her even more deeply, when one sigh escaped  _from_  Mal’s lips and a different sigh escaped  _into_  them, her sole regret was that she’d waited one month and three days too long to do this. She didn’t want it to end, but Evie had said her piece, and even though Mal had been told this way didn’t take a word, not a single word, she still had five of them that she so desperately wanted to say.  
  
“…I love you too, Evie.”  
  
Mal kept her eyes closed, let her forehead fall to rest against Evie’s like it often did in sleep, like they were both so, so wonderfully used to.  
  
“…You love me,” Evie breathed, smiling in spite of the giddy disbelief in her tone.  
  
“Should I kiss you again to prove it?”  
  
“…It couldn’t hurt.”  
  
No, it really couldn’t, not with Evie threading her fingers through Mal’s hair, and certainly not with Mal’s arms going around her waist to bring her and keep her impossibly close.  
  
“I love you,” Mal said again.  
  
“I love  _you_ ,” Evie’s hands settled on Mal’s shoulders.  
  
“…And to think we were the last to know.”  
  
“…Were we really that obvious?”  
  
Together, they thought back on the last month and a half, with all its soft touches, all its lingering looks, all its late night cuddles and early morning smiles. All its closeness, assurances, and promises. The last month and a half when a pair of best friends didn’t even notice the jump from friendship to love because they already stood together, two hearts as one.  
  
“…We were a little obvious,” Mal said with a laugh.  
  
A wonderful laugh, so happy, and so light, one that Evie quickly joined in on. Heart to heart, they marveled at how the daughter of evil and the daughter of malevolence had escaped their island prison—their own  _personal_ prisons—and come to love each other so deeply and fiercely that it came as naturally to them as laying their heads on each other’s shoulders after a long day of class.  
  
Like it was the most natural thing in the world.  
  
It seemed like the old saying was wrong, after all.  
  
The apple really did fall far from the tree.


End file.
